Book one: the lightening thieves
by Hina714
Summary: It's the a canon fanfiction with the same plot you love from the series only with a big twist. What if Percy had another friend before Grover and what if both Percy and her were blamed for stealing the lightening bolt?
1. Author's note

**A/N: Hi everyone, I'm Hina714 and I'm kinda new to writing fanfiction. I have another story I started from, if you like you can check it out and review it, but please only positive reviews. Ok I know this is not a chapter and I'm sorry for that, I'll be putting up a chapter soon. This is just to tell you what to expect. Ok the first thing is I wish I did but I do not I DON'T OWN PERCY JACKSON SERIES! Second, this story will have the same plot from the book the only difference is my OC will be in it and percy and annabeth is not be getting together, they'll be great friends but not together. One of my favorite author got 2 really awful reviews because she didn't put them together, so please know that this is a fanfiction, where the author can make the story as they like, if you don't like it, don't read it.**

 **Ok ok now what I really wanted to say from the beginning is that my OC will have the same first name, last name and appearance as the character of my favorite anime but it is not a crossover(well her hair will be a bit of a lighter color than the one in the anime) and also there will be maybe one or two things that is from the anime like an item and some skills but overall not a crossover** **. Second and a little spoiler, she is the daughter of two gods but still a Demigod. Can you guess which ones? Like I said I hope to have the first chapter posted soon. Oh here's a fun idea, if you can guess the names of the two gods I'm thinking of making her parents, I'll notice your name on my next post! So give me your thoughts on it and see you soon! Oh and by the way this little contest will end by the first Friday of June!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Hey guys, I'm back with an actual chapter this time. On my last post, I told about what to expect and had a little contest to guess who my OCs two godly parents are but no one has reviewed or PM me their answers. But I know it's my fault because you guys didn't have any hints or clues to help you and for that I'm sorry. So here's what I'll do, this contest will go on until I post the 8th chapter, during the first seven there may or may no be hints on who her parents will be. Like I said before, I'll notice your name on the chapter if you get it right! Well I'm talking so much now, so happy reading! P.S please review!**

1 I ACCIDENTALLY VAPORIZE OUR PRE-ALGEBRA TEACHER

Look, I didn't want to be a half-blood.

If you're reading this because you think you might be one, my advice is: close this book right now. Believe whatever lie your mom or dad told you about your birth, and try to lead a normal life.

Being a half-blood is dangerous. It's scary. Most of the time, it gets you killed in painful, nasty ways.

If you're a normal kid, reading this because you think it's fiction, great. Read on. I envy you for being able to believe that none of this ever happened.

But if you recognize yourself in these pages-if you feel something stirring inside-stop reading immediately. You might be one of us. And once you know that, it's only a matter of time before they sense it too, and they'll come for you.

Don't say I didn't warn you.

My name is Percy Jackson.

I'm twelve years old. Until a few months ago, I was a boarding student at Yancy Academy, a private school for troubled kids in upstate New York.

Am I a troubled kid?

Yeah. You could say that.

I could start at any point in my short miserable life to prove it, but things really started going bad last May, when our sixth-grade class took a field trip to Manhattan- twenty-eight mental-case kids and two teachers on a yellow school bus, heading to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to look at ancient Greek and Roman stuff.

I know it sounds like torture. Most Yancy field trips were.

But Mr. Brunner, our Latin teacher, was leading this trip, so I had hopes.

Mr. Brunner was this middle-aged guy in a motorized wheelchair. He had thinning hair and a scruffy beard and a frayed tweed jacket, which always smelled like coffee. You wouldn't think he'd be cool, but he told stories and jokes and let us play games in class. He also had this awesome collection of Roman armor and weapons, so he was the only teacher whose class didn't put me to sleep.

I hoped the trip would be okay. At least, I hoped that for once I wouldn't get in trouble.

Boy, was I wrong.

See, bad things happen to me on field trips. Like at my fifth-grade school, when we went to the Saratoga battlefield, I had this accident with a Revolutionary War cannon. I wasn't aiming for the school bus, but of course I got expelled anyway. And before that, at my fourth-grade school, when we took a behind- the-scenes tour of the Marine World shark pool, I sort of hit the wrong lever on the catwalk and our class took an unplanned swim. And the time before that... Well, you get the idea.

This trip, I was determined to be good.

All the way into the city, I put up with Nancy Bobofit, the freckly, redheaded kleptomaniac girl, hitting my best friend Grover in the back of the head with chunks of peanut butter-and-ketchup sandwich.

Grover was an easy target. He was scrawny. He cried when he got frustrated. He must've been held back several grades, because he was the only sixth grader with acne and the start of a wispy beard on his chin. On top of all that, he was crippled. He had a note excusing him from PE for the rest of his life because he had some kind of muscular disease in his legs. He walked funny, like every step hurt him, but don't let that fool you. You should've seen him run when it was enchilada day in the cafeteria.

Anyway, Nancy Bobofit was throwing wads of sandwich that stuck in his curly brown hair, and she knew I couldn't do anything back to her because I was already on probation. The headmaster had threatened me with death by in-school suspension if anything bad, embarrassing, or even mildly entertaining happened on this trip.

"I'm going to kill her," I mumbled.

Grover tried to calm me down. "It's okay. I like peanut butter."

He dodged another piece of Nancy's lunch.

"That's it." I started to get up, but Grover pulled me back to my seat.

"You're already on probation," he reminded me. "You know who'll get blamed if anything happens." He looks up, then smiles back at me "Besides I think she'll stop soon"

Knowing him, I knew right away what he was talking about when it came to dealing with Nancy Bobofit. I looked up and saw my bestest friend, Hinata Hyuga, gripping Nancy's wrist, giving her an evil glare that told her that if she continued picking on Grover, that sandwich would be shoved up her nose and come out of her ears.

A kid like me has two best friends. Cool, right? I made friend with Grover just this year but I've been friends with Hinata since the first day of our fourth grade class. Even after all the crazy things I've done and the trouble I gotten us into, Hinata still stayed friends with me. Whenever I got kicked out of a school, Hinata would refuse to go back to that school and go into a new school with me, always saying "Someone has to control you, it might as well be me". But I didn't care I was alway happy to have my bestest friend close by.

Nancy was struggling against Hinata's grip, trying to look tough but I knew she was scared of Hinata. After all, whenever she was picking on Grover, Hinata came back at her with twice the fiery. And Trust me, you do not want to make her mad.

"H-Hey, let go of me, y-you freakish tomboy!" Nancy said.

If you saw how Hinata dressed outside of the academy, you would see why she's a tomboy. Yeah I said she, Hinata is a girl.

I mean sure she wears only jeans, T-shirts, jackets and sneakers and she hates girly stuff like makeup and accessories and dresses but that's how she is. Hinata never cared about her looks, she says it's what's on the inside that counts and that's what I like most about her. As for that freakish part, it was just her hair and eye color they found so weird. Hinata had short straight dark blue hair, that looked black when it was dark or when the lighting isn't bright enough. Her hair showed it's real color when she was in the sunlight or moonlight. Her eyes were a light lavender color, they weren't like anyone's eyes because she didn't have normal black pupils in them. At first I found them to be a little strange but I think they really suit her.

Being the way she is, Hinata wasn't effected by Nancy's word as she kept a firm grip on her wrist "You know I wonder what it will look like if I smack those freckles right off your face. Care to found out?" She asked

Nancy knew that Hinata might actually try to smack her freckles off, so she sat back down, put her lunch away and was quiet for the rest of the bus ride.

Grover looked back at Hinata as she sat back down on her seat besides us "Thanks Hinata, you're a life saver"

Hinata smirks, looking at me "Well I can't let Mr. Probation here handle it, he would get in trouble and then complain about how bored he'll be in his suspension" she said in a teasing tone

I gave her a playful glare "I would not!" I said, then all three of us laughed at my failed attempt at getting mad

Looking back on it, I wish I'd decked Nancy Bobofit right then and there instead of Hinata. In-school suspension would've been nothing compared to the mess I was about to get the both of us into.

Mr. Brunner led the museum tour.

He rode up front in his wheelchair, guiding us through the big echoey galleries, past marble statues and glass cases full of really old black-and-orange pottery.

It blew my mind that this stuff had survived for two thousand, three thousand years.

He gathered us around a thirteen-foot-tall stone col-umn with a big sphinx on the top, and started telling us how it was a grave marker, a stele, for a girl about our age. He told us about the carvings on the sides. I was trying to listen to what he had to say, because it was kind of interesting, but everybody around me was talking, and every time I told them to shut up, the other teacher chaperone, Mrs. Dodds, would give me the evil eye.

Mrs. Dodds was this little math teacher from Georgia who always wore a black leather jacket, even though she was fifty years old. She looked mean enough to ride a Harley right into your locker. She had come to Yancy halfway through the year, when our last math teacher had a nervous breakdown.

From her first day, Mrs. Dodds loved Nancy Bobofit and figured that I was devil spawn. She would point her crooked finger at me and say, "Now, honey," real sweet, and I knew I was going to get after-school detention for a month. There were times when she tried to punish Hinata just for defending me but she always lost those battles and it was satisfying to see the look on her face when she doesn't get things her way. Even so, when both of us were in trouble with her she would say "Now, darlings", but like I said, she loses those battles.

One time, after she'd made me erase answers out of old math workbooks until midnight, I told Grover I didn't think Mrs. Dodds was human. He looked at me, real serious, and said, "You're absolutely right."

Mr. Brunner kept talking about Greek funeral art.

Finally, Nancy Bobofit snickered something about the naked guy on the stele, and I turned around and said, "Will you shut up?"

It came out louder than I meant it to.

The whole group laughed. Mr. Brunner stopped his story.

"Mr. Jackson," he said, "did you have a comment?"

My face was totally red. I said, "No, sir."

Mr. Brunner pointed to one of the pictures on the stele. "Perhaps you'll tell us what this picture represents?"

I looked at the carving, and felt a flush of relief, because I actually recognized it. "That's Kronos eating his kids, right?"

"Yes," Mr. Brunner said, obviously not satisfied. "And he did this because ..."

"Well..." I racked my brain to remember. "Kronos was the king god, and-"

"God?" Mr. Brunner asked.

"Titan" Hinata whispered to me

"Titan," I corrected myself. "And ... he didn't trust his kids, who were the gods. So, um, Kronos ate them, right? But his wife hid baby Zeus, and gave Kronos a rock to eat instead. And later, when Zeus grew up, he tricked his dad, Kronos, into barfing up his brothers and sisters-"

"Eeew!" said one of the girls behind me.

"-and so there was this big fight between the gods and the Titans," I continued, "and the gods won."

Some snickers from the group.

Behind me, Nancy Bobofit mumbled to a friend, "Like we're going to use this in real life. Like it's going to say on our job applications, 'Please explain why Kronos ate his kids.'"

"And why, Mr. Jackson," Brunner said, "to paraphrase Miss Bobofit's excellent question, does this matter in real life?"

"Busted," Grover muttered.

"Shut up," Nancy hissed, her face even brighter red than her hair.

At least Nancy got packed, too. Mr. Brunner was the only one who ever caught her saying anything wrong. He had radar ears.

I thought about his question, and shrugged. "I don't know, sir."

"I see." Mr. Brunner looked over to Hinata "Might you have the answer, Ms. Hyuga?"

"Me?" She said then thought about it for a minute and sighed "I'm sorry sir but I don't have the answer"

looked disappointed "Well, half credit, Mr. Jackson. Zeus did indeed feed Kronos a mixture of mustard and wine, which made him disgorge his other five children, who, of course, being immortal gods, had been living and growing up completely undigested in the Titan's stomach. The gods defeated their father, sliced him to pieces with his own scythe, and scattered his remains in Tartarus, the darkest part of the Underworld. On that happy note, it's time for lunch. Mrs. Dodds, would you lead us back outside?"

The class drifted off, the girls holding their stomachs, the guys pushing each other around and acting like doofuses.

Grover, Hinata and I were about to follow when Mr. Brunner said, "Mr. Jackson, Ms. Hyuga"

I knew that was coming

I told Grover to keep going. Then we turned toward Mr. Brunner. "Sir?" I said

Mr. Brunner had this look that wouldn't let you go intense brown eyes that could've been a thousand years old and had seen everything.

"You two must learn the answer to my question," Mr. Brunner told us.

"About the Titans?" I asked

"About real life. And how your studies apply to it."

"Oh."

"What you learn from me," he said, "is vitally important. I expect you both to treat it as such. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson and you as well, Hinata Hyuga."

I wanted to get angry, this guy pushed me so hard.

I mean, sure, it was kind of cool on tournament days, when he dressed up in a suit of Roman armor and shouted: "What ho!'" and challenged us, sword-point against chalk, to run to the board and name every Greek and Roman person who had ever lived, and their mother, and what god they worshipped. But Mr. Brunner expected me to be as good as everybody else, despite the fact that I have dyslexia and attention deficit disorder and I had never made above a C- in my life. No he didn't expect me to be as good; he expected me to be better. And I just couldn't learn all those names and facts, much less spell them correctly.

I wasn't like Hinata, despite having the same problems as me, she was still able to get the best grades I've ever seen, so I can see why he would want her to be better. She told me before about how her parents worked her on her dyslexia so much, it's not really hard for her to read anymore. I wish I had that kind of help.

I mumbled something about trying harder and Hinata bowed, in a Japanese style, saying she'll do her best, while Mr. Brunner took one long sad look at the stele, like he'd been at this girl's funeral.

He told us to go outside and eat our lunches.

The class gathered on the front steps of the museum, where we could watch the foot traffic along Fifth Avenue.

Overhead, a huge storm was brewing, with clouds blacker than I'd ever seen over the city. I figured maybe it was global warming or something, because the weather all across New York state had been weird since Christmas. We'd had massive snow storms, flooding, wildfires from lightning strikes. I wouldn't have been surprised if this was a hurri-cane blowing in.

Nobody else seemed to notice. Some of the guys were pelting pigeons with Lunchables crackers. Nancy Bobofit was trying to pickpocket something from a lady's purse, and, of course, Mrs. Dodds wasn't seeing a thing.

Grover, Hinata and I sat on the edge of the fountain, away from the others. We thought that maybe if we did that, everybody wouldn't know we were from that school the school for loser freaks who couldn't make it elsewhere.

"Detention?" Grover asked.

"Nah," I said. "Not from Brunner. I just wish he'd lay off me sometimes. I mean I'm not a genius."

Grover didn't say anything for a while. Then, when I thought he was going to give me some deep philosophical comment to make me feel better, he said, "Can I have your apple?"

I didn't have much of an appetite, so I let him take it.

Hinata laid her hand on my shoulder "Perce" She called using the nickname she made for me.

I turned and saw she was giving me a thoughtful look with a small smile "Look Mr. Brunner just wants you to do your best. He says these things because he sees you have potential" Hinata said. It was times like these that make it hard to believe that Hinata was a tomboy. The way she's gentle with her touch and voice, how she looks in her uniform and that smile, it's like she's a normal girl, not a feared tomboy.

She was probably right , I mean no teacher would be this hard on their students as Mr. Brunner is on both of us if he didn't believe we could do more, right?

I watched the stream of cabs going down Fifth Avenue, and thought about my mom's apartment, only a little ways uptown from where we sat. I hadn't seen her since Christmas. I wanted so bad to jump in a taxi and head home. She'd hug me and be glad to see me, but she'd be disappointed, too. She'd send me right back to Yancy, remind me that I had to try harder, even if this was my sixth school in six years and I was probably going to be kicked out again. I wouldn't be able to stand that sad look she'd give me.

Mr. Brunner parked his wheelchair at the base of the handicapped ramp. He ate celery while he read a paperback novel. A red umbrella stuck up from the back of his chair, making it look like a motorized cafe table.

I was about to unwrap my sandwich when Nancy Bobofit appeared in front of us with her ugly friends I guess she'd gotten tired of stealing from the tourists and dumped her half-eaten lunch in Grover's lap.

"Oops." She grinned at me with her crooked teeth. Her freckles were orange, as if somebody had spray painted her face with liquid Cheetos.

I tried to stay cool and I could tell Hinata was too. The school counselor had told us like a million times, "Count to ten, get control of your temper." But I was so mad my mind went blank. A wave roared in my ears.

I don't remember touching her, but the next thing I knew, Nancy was sitting on her butt in the fountain with the worse case of sunburn I've ever seen , screaming, "Percy pushed me, Hinata burned me!"

Mrs. Dodds materialized next to us.

Some of the kids were whispering: "Did you see-"

"-the water-"

"-like it grabbed her-"

"-and that light-"

"-it came out of nowhere-"

I didn't know what they were talking about. All I knew was that I was in trouble again and Hinata was in for the ride too.

As soon as Mrs. Dodds was sure poor little Nancy was okay, promising to get her a new shirt at the museum gift shop, etc., etc., Mrs. Dodds turned on us. There was a triumphant fire in her eyes, as if we'd done something she'd been waiting for all semester. "Now, darlings-"

"I know," I grumbled. "A month erasing workbooks."

Hinata elbowed me in the arm, glaring at me

I think in her own way, she was trying to tell me that wasn't the right thing to say.

"You two, come with me," Mrs. Dodds said.

"Wait!" Grover yelped. "It was me. I pushed and burned her."

We stared at him, stunned. I couldn't believe he was trying to cover for us. Mrs. Dodds scared Grover to death.

She glared at him so hard his whiskery chin trembled.

"I don't think so, Mr. Underwood," she said.

"But-"

"You-will-stay-here."

Grover looked at us desperately

"It's okay, man," I told him. "Thanks for trying."

Hinata patted him on his shoulder "We'll be fine"

"Darlings," Mrs. Dodds barked at us. "Now."

Nancy Bobofit smirked.

I gave her my deluxe I'll-kill-you-later stare while Hinata just cracked her knuckles at her, showing her what's to come later. Then we turned to face Mrs. Dodds, but she wasn't there. She was standing at the museum entrance, way at the top of the steps, gesturing impatiently at me to come on.

How'd she get there so fast?

I have moments like that a lot, when my brain falls asleep or something, and the next thing I know I've missed something, as if a puzzle piece fell out of the universe and left me staring at the blank place behind it. The school counselor told me this was part of the ADHD, my brain misinterpreting things. Maybe it was the same for Hinata too.

I wasn't so sure.

I went after Mrs. Dodds with Hinata following besides me.

Halfway up the steps, I glanced back at Grover. He was looking pale, cutting his eyes between us and Mr. Brunner, like he wanted Mr. Brunner to notice what was going on, but Mr. Brunner was absorbed in his novel.

I looked back up. Mrs. Dodds had disappeared again. She was now inside the building, at the end of the entrance hall.

Okay, I thought. She's going to make us buy a new shirt and some aloe cream for Nancy at the gift shop.

But apparently that wasn't the plan.

Hinata stopped moving and I turned to her "Hey, what are you doing? We need to follow Mrs. Dodds" I said

"Perce, don't you think this is strange?" Hinata asked me

"Huh?"

"Think about it Perce, Mrs. Dodds has punished and lectured you in front of the class so many times before and now she chooses to do it in private?" Hinata said as she looked at me

I started to think about what Hinata was saying and she was right. Why did Mrs. Dodds choose now to spare us the embarrassment of giving punished in front of the class? What was her plan?

"I don't think this is right, Percy. Something feels off to me" Hinata said with this serious look on her face.

You see, Hinata comes from a wealthy Japanese family that is high in the business world of today but still keep in touch with their culture of the past. She told me on her mom side of the family, they were descendants of a ninja group, of course now that group doesn't exist anymore but she said they still trained her saying "it was benefit you in the future". She tried to teach me but after two lessons of getting punched in the gut and kicked in the face so many times, I gave up.

Anyway, because of her training, Hinata got this sense of knowing when things are about to go bad. Usually she's right when she has this feeling but this time I thought she was just being paranoid.

"Hinata, this is Mrs. Dodds we're talking about. The worse she can do is make us erase workbooks for a year" I said to her "Come on, we have to get moving before she decides to make us buy that shirt for Nancy"

Judging by the way she looked, Hinata still had a bad feeling about this but started to walk besides me again.

Man, I really wished I listened to Hinata back then

We followed her deeper into the museum. When we finally caught up to her, we were back in the Greek and Roman section.

Except for us, the gallery was empty.

Mrs. Dodds stood with her arms crossed in front of a big marble frieze of the Greek gods. She was making this weird noise in her throat, like growling.

Even without the noise, I would've been nervous. It's weird being alone with a teacher, especially Mrs. Dodds. Something about the way she looked at the frieze, as if she wanted to pulverize it...

"You two have been giving us problems, darlings," she said.

I did the safe thing. I said, "Yes, ma'am."

Hinata bowed her head "We're sorry, ma'am"

She tugged on the cuffs of her leather jacket. "Did you two really think you would get away with it?"

The look in her eyes was beyond mad. It was evil.

She's a teacher, I thought nervously. It's not like she's going to hurt us.

I said, "I'll-I'll try harder, ma'am."

Thunder shook the building.

Hinata tugged on my sleeve a little, bring me close to her "Perce, my gut is telling me, we should get out of here" She whispered to me

I totally agreed with her but I don't think Mrs. Dodds was going to let that happen

"We are not fools, Percy Jackson and Hinata Hyuga," Mrs. Dodds said. "It was only a matter of time before we found you both out. Confess, and you will suffer less pain."

I didn't know what she was talking about.

All I could think of was that the teachers must've found the illegal stash of candy I'd been selling out of my dorm room. Or maybe they'd realized I got my essay on Tom Sawyer from the Internet without ever reading the book and now they were going to take away my grade. Or worse, they were going to make me read the book.

"Well?" she demanded.

"Ma'am, I don't..."

"Your time is up," she hissed.

Then the weirdest thing happened. Her eyes began to glow like barbecue coals. Her fingers stretched, turning into talons. Her jacket melted into large, leathery wings. She wasn't human. She was a shriveled hag with bat wings and claws and a mouth full of yellow fangs, and she was about to slice us to ribbons.

Besides me, Hinata stood there frozen, I couldn't tell if it was out of shock at what we're seeing or pure fear.

Then things got even stranger.

Mr. Brunner, who'd been out in front of the museum a minute before, wheeled his chair into the doorway of the gallery, holding a pen in his hand.

"What ho, Percy!" he shouted, and tossed the pen through the air.

Mrs. Dodds lunged at us.

With a yelp, I pushed Hinata out of the way and dodged, feeling the talons slash the air next to my ear. Hinata and I were both on the ground and the pen was only a few feet away from me. I didn't know why Mr. Brunner would give me a pen at a time like this but I didn't care, I just needed to get it.

Hinata shook her head and tried to gain her nerves back. She lifted her skirt a little and I blushed, about to turn my head away when I saw her pull out a knife that was strapped to her thigh. It was the knife in a book of ninja tools she showed me once. I think it was called a kunai knife, but the one in the book was a light black color, the one she was holding was made of bronze.

Hinata looked at me "I don't know what Mrs. Dodds is but I do know she wants us dead! I'll distract her and you get out of here!" she said as she started to run towards Mrs. Dodds

I thought she was crazy and that her idea was crazier. There was no way I was going to run away and leave my longest friend with that..that thing. I saw the ballpoint pen Mr. Brunner threw and ran to it and picked it up. When it touched my hand, it wasn't a pen anymore. It was a sword-Mr. Brunner's bronze sword, which he always used on tournament day.

I looked up and saw that Hinata holding off Mrs. Dodds. She was amazing, she jumped backwards, ducked and dodged all of Mrs. Dodds attacks, when she got the chance, she slashed her in the arm with her knife. Mrs. Dodds shrieked so loud in pain, Hinata had to cover her ears. Which wasn't a good idea.

Mrs. Dodds took that chance to batted Hinata away from her, sending her flying to the ground, sliding to where I was.

Hinata grunts at the impact and tries to get up but yelps, grabbing her shoulder. With that fall her took, it's no surprise she's injured.

Mrs. Dodds spun toward us with a murderous look in her eyes.

My knees were jelly. My hands were shaking so bad I almost dropped the sword.

She snarled, "Die, darlings!"

And she flew straight at us.

I stood in front of Hinata to protect her, but even so I was scared out of my mind. Absolute terror ran through my body. I did the only thing that came naturally: I swung the sword.

The metal blade hit her shoulder and passed clean through her body as if she were made of water. Hisss!

Mrs. Dodds was a sand castle in a power fan. She exploded into yellow powder, vaporized on the spot, leaving nothing but the smell of sulfur and a dying screech and a chill of evil in the air, as if those two glowing red eyes were still watching us.

It was just me and Hinata.

There was a ballpoint pen in my hand.

Mr. Brunner wasn't there. Nobody was there but us.

My hands were still trembling. My lunch must've been contaminated with magic mushrooms or some-thing.

Had I imagined the whole thing?

I turned to Hinata and saw she was up on her feet, fixing her shoulder. If she really got hurt, then I couldn't have imagined it, could I? Maybe she fell while I was losing my mind.

As if she was reading my mind, Hinata said "You're not losing it, Perce because if you are, I am too."

"W-What just happened?" I asked her, needing some kind of answer to what went on just now.

"I-I don't really know, Percy, I just don't" Hinata said looking just as confused and shocked as I was

We went back outside.

It had started to rain.

Grover was sitting by the fountain, a museum map tented over his head. Nancy Bobofit was still standing there, soaked from her swim in the fountain, grumbling to her ugly friends.

When she saw us, she said, "I hope Mrs. Kerr whipped your butts."

I said, "Who?"

"Our teacher. Duh!"

Hinata and I turned and looked at each other and blinked. We had no teacher named Mrs. Kerr. I asked Nancy what she was talking about.

She just rolled her eyes and turned away

Hinata asked Grover where Mrs. Dodds was.

He said, "Who?"

But he paused first, and he wouldn't look at us, so I thought he was messing with us.

"Not funny, man," I told him. "This is serious."

"Come on, Grover, tell us where she is" Hinata said

There was another pause from him and he said "I don't know who you two are talking about"

Thunder boomed overhead.

We saw Mr. Brunner sitting under his red umbrella, read-ing his book, as if he'd never moved.

I went over to him while Hinata was still trying to get an answer out of Grover.

He looked up, a little distracted. "Ah, that would be my pen. Please bring your own writing utensil in the future, Mr. Jackson."

I handed Mr. Brunner his pen. I hadn't even realized I was still holding it.

"Sir," I said, "where's Mrs. Dodds?"

He stared at me blankly. "Who?"

"The other chaperone. Mrs. Dodds. The pre-algebra teacher."

He frowned and sat forward, looking mildly concerned. "Percy, there is no Mrs. Dodds on this trip. As far as I know, there has never been a Mrs. Dodds at Yancy Academy. Are you feeling all right?"


	3. Socks of Death

I was used to the occasional weird experience, but usually they were over quickly. This twenty- four/seven hallucina-tion was more than I could handle. For the rest of the school year, the entire campus seemed to be playing some kind of trick on me and Hinata . The students acted as if they were completely and totally convinced that Mrs. Kerr-a perky blond woman whom I'd never seen in my life until she got on our bus at the end of the field trip-had been our pre-algebra teacher since Christmas.

Every so often I would spring a Mrs. Dodds reference on somebody, just to see if I could trip them up, but they would stare at me like I was psycho. They would have done the same thing to Hinata but they knew not to make her mad, so they just stayed clear of her.

It got so we almost believed them-Mrs. Dodds had never existed.

Almost.

But Grover couldn't fool us. When we mentioned the name Dodds to him, he would hesitate, then claim she didn't exist. But we knew he was lying.

There are times when Hinata reached her limit, she would threatenGrover to tell us the truth. On those days, I have to hold her back, which is like holding back a bull. I wanted answers too but not by sending someone to the hospital.

Something was going on. Something had happened at the museum.

I didn't have much time to think about it during the days, but at night, visions of Mrs. Dodds with talons and leathery wings would wake me up in a cold sweat.

The freak weather continued, which didn't help my mood. One night, a thunderstorm blew out the windows in my dorm room. A few days later, the biggest tornado ever spotted in the Hudson Valley touched down only fifty miles from Yancy Academy. One of the current events we studied in social studies class was the unusual number of small planes that had gone down in sudden squalls in the Atlantic that year.

I started feeling cranky and irritable most of the time. My grades slipped from Ds to Fs. I got into more fights with Nancy Bobofit and her friends. I was sent out into the hallway in almost every class.

Finally, when our English teacher, Mr. Nicoll, asked me for the millionth time why I was too lazy to study for spelling tests, I snapped. I called him an old sot. I wasn't even sure what it meant, but it sounded good. Later Hinata told me I called him an old drunk, which she said I was right about considering he reeked of alcohol.

I saw that Hinata wasn't doing any better. With the weather, the unanswered questions, and the annoyance of Nancy and her friends, she looked like she was ready to kill someone.

One morning, I heard the guys in my dorm talk about Nancy and her friends being in the infirmary. I went to go check it out with Grover, when we got there we saw that they looked beaten. Nancy's friend both had swollen cheeks and broken arms. But Nancy got the worse, she didn't have broken arms but she did have a black eye, a broken nose, broken ribs and a strain ankle. I knew just by looking at them that it was Hinata's handy work, they finally pushed her too far. Part of me felt a little bad, the other was glad they got what they deserved.

The headmaster sent our parents letters the following week, making it official: We would not be invited back next year to Yancy Academy.

Fine, I told myself. Just fine.

I was homesick.

I wanted to be with my mom in our little apartment on the Upper East Side, even if I had to go to public school and put up with my obnoxious stepfather and his stupid poker parties.

And yet... there were things I'd miss at Yancy. The view of the woods out my dorm window, the Hudson River in the distance, the smell of pine trees. I'd miss Grover, who'd been a good friend, even if he was a little strange. I worried how he'd survive next year without me.

I'd miss Latin class, too-Mr. Brunner's crazy tournament days and his faith that I could do well.

As exam week got closer, Latin was the only test I studied for. I hadn't forgotten what Mr. Brunner had told me about this subject being life-and-death for me. I wasn't sure why, but I'd started to believe him.

The evening before my final, I got so frustrated I threw the Cambridge Guide to Greek Mythology across my dorm room. Words had started swimming off the page, circling my head, the letters doing one- eighties as if they were riding skateboards. There was no way I was going to remember the difference between Chiron and Charon, or Polydictes and Polydeuces. And conjugating those Latin verbs? Forget it.

I paced the room, feeling like ants were crawling around inside my shirt.

I remembered Mr. Brunner's serious expression, his thousand-year-old eyes. I will accept only the best from you, Percy Jackson.

I took a deep breath. I picked up the mythology book.

I'd never asked a teacher for help before. Maybe if I talked to Mr. Brunner, he could give me some pointers. At least I could apologize for the big fat F I was about to score on his exam. I didn't want to leave Yancy Academy with him thinking I hadn't tried.

I walked downstairs to the faculty offices. Most of them were dark and empty, but Mr. Brunner's door was ajar, light from his window stretching across the hallway floor.

A hand came from behind me and touched my shoulder. I jumped and neared dropped my textbook when I turned to see it was Hinata with a sheet of paper in her hand.

"Don't do that!" I said with my hand clutching my chest

She give me a look and looked at my textbook "I never thought I'd see the day when my best friend would actually go and ask a teacher for help"

I gave her a soft glare and said "Oh shut up, this is my last exam for Mr. Brunner's class, I want to try my best"

Hinata's eyes soften " Yeah, I understand I'm here for a little help too. Mr. Brunner is my favorite teacher and I want to leave here with him knowing I really enjoyed his class."

In the back of my mind, I was glad that Hinata was kicked out of this school too. It meant I would have someone there I trust to have my back, who would cheer me up and make me laugh. Honestly, I feel kind of lonely if she's not around.

"Well, are we going to just stand here or are we going to ask for help?" Hinata asked in a teasing tone

I chuckled "Yeah, yeah"

I was three steps from the door handle when we heard voices inside the office. Mr. Brunner asked a question. A voice that was definitely Grover's said "... Worried about both Percy and Hinata, sir. "

We froze.

I'm not usually an eavesdropper, but I dare you to try not listening if you hear one of your best friends talking about you to an adult.

Hinata got in front of me and pulled me closer so both of us could hear better.

"... Alone this summer, " Grover was saying. "I mean, a Kindly One in the school! Now that we know for sure, and they know too-"

"We would only make matters worse by rushing them, " Mr. Brunner said. "We need those two to mature more. "

"But they may not have time. The summer solstice dead-line- "

"Will have to be resolved without them, Grover. Let them enjoy their ignorance while they still can. "

"Sir, they saw her... . "

"Their imagination, " Mr. Brunner insisted. "The Mist over the students and staff will be enough to convince him of that. "

"But sir, Hinata's has a keen eye, she..."

"The Mist covers even the sharpest of eyes, Grover. She didn't see a thing"

"Sir, I ... I can't fail in my duties again. " Grover's voice was choked with emotion. "You know what that would mean. "

"You haven't failed, Grover, " Mr. Brunner said kindly. "I should have seen her for what she was. Now let's just worry about keeping Percy and Hinata alive until next fall-"

The mythology book dropped out of my hand and hit the floor with a thud.

Mr. Brunner went silent.

Hinata jumped a little and turned to me, giving me a glare that said "Are you kidding me?!"

My heart hammering, I picked up the book, grabbed Hinata's arm and backed us down the hall.

A shadow slid across the lighted glass of Brunner's office door, the shadow of something much taller than our wheelchair-bound teacher, holding something that looked suspiciously like an archer's bow.

I opened the nearest door and we slipped inside.

A few seconds later I heard a slow clop-clop-clop, like muf-fled wood blocks, then a sound like an animal snuffling right outside my door. A large, dark shape paused in front of the glass, then moved on.

A bead of sweat trickled down my neck. Before I could pull Hinata away, she pressed her ear against the door, I wanted to ask her what she was doing but she pressed her finger against my lips, shushing me.

Somewhere in the hallway, Mr. Brunner spoke. "Nothing, " he murmured. "My nerves haven't been right since the winter solstice. "

"Mine neither, " Grover said. "But I could have sworn ... "

"Go back to the dorm, " Mr. Brunner told him. "You've got a long day of exams tomorrow. "

"Don't remind me. "

The lights went out in Mr. Brunner's office.

We waited in the dark for what seemed like forever.

I sighed in relief "That was close"

I looked at Hinata and saw this look on her face that I knew all too well, it was the look of anger, a look that said she has had enough "I knew it! Those two are hiding something from us and I'm going to give my answer one way or another!"

She was about to grab the knob when I blocked her "And what are you going to say?" I started to imitate her voice "Hey, Mr. Brunner, we were eavesdropping on you and Grover and heard everything you guys were saying, by the way what's a Kindly One?"

I could tell that by the narrowing of her eyes, I was pushing my luck but I knew I was right about what I was saying. And apparently she knew too because after a minute, she sighed and her gaze softened "Ok, smarty-pants so what do you think we should do? Now we know that not only Grover but also has the answers we've been looking for since that trip"

"All I think is we should go back to our dorms and ask Grover after the test tomorrow...without threatening him" I said quickly adding the last part

She crossed her arms and sighed again "Fine but if we don't get our answer tomorrow, I'll go crazy." Her gazed turned to a look of confusion and concern "All I want to know is what's going on"

I stood there next to her, looking at my textbook feeling the same way she was "I do too, Hinata. I do too"

Finally, We slipped out into the hallway and made our way back up to our dorms.

Grover was lying on his bed, studying his Latin exam notes like he'd been there all night.

"Hey, " he said, bleary-eyed. "You going to be ready for this test?"

I didn't answer.

"You look awful. " He frowned. "Is everything okay?"

"Just... Tired. "

I turned so he couldn't read my expression, and started getting ready for bed.

I didn't understand what Hinata and I heard downstairs. I wanted to believe I'd imagined the whole thing.

But one thing was clear: Grover and Mr. Brunner were talking about us behind our back. They thought we were in some kind of danger.

The next afternoon, we took our exam, Hinata finished her exam about an hour before me and waited at the door for me. As I was leaving the three-hour Latin exam, my eyes swimming with all the Greek and Roman names I'd misspelled, Mr. Brunner called me back inside.

For a moment, I was worried he'd found out about our eavesdropping the night before, but that didn't seem to be the problem.

"Percy, " he said. "Don't be discouraged about leaving Yancy. It's ... It's for the best. "

His tone was kind, but the words still embarrassed me. Even though he was speaking quietly, the other kids finishing the test could hear. Nancy Bobofit smirked at me and made sarcastic little kissing motions with her lips.

I mumbled, "Okay, sir. "

"I mean ... " Mr. Brunner wheeled his chair back and forth, like he wasn't sure what to say. "This isn't the right place for you, it isn't the right place for Hinata either. It was only a matter of time. "

My eyes stung and my blood was boiling.

Here was my favorite teacher, in front of the class, telling me that Hinata and I couldn't handle it. After saying he believed in us all year, now he was telling me we were destined to get kicked out. I was upset about that but I was even more upset when he said about Hinata. She was a great student, one of his best in the class, she alway looked forward to seeing him, helping him, and etc. She practically worshipped him.

"Right, " I said, trembling.

"No, no, " Mr. Brunner said. "Oh, confound it all. What I'm trying to say ... You two are not normal, Percy. That's nothing to be-"

"Thanks, " I blurted. "Thanks a lot, sir, for reminding me but I won't stand here and let you talk down about one of the greatest students you've ever had, she doesn't deserve that!"

"Percy-"

But I was already out the door, I saw Hinata sitting across from the classroom, I grab her arm and start pulling her far away from the room, ignore her questions and the worried tone of her voice. I wasn't about to tell her that our favorite teacher never really believed in us.

On the last day of the term, I shoved my clothes into my suitcase.

The other guys were joking around, talking about their vacation plans. One of them was going on a hiking trip to Switzerland. Another was cruising the Caribbean for a month. They were juvenile delinquents, like me, but they were rich juvenile delinquents. Their daddies were executives, or ambassadors, or celebrities. I was a nobody, from a family of nobodies.

They asked me what I'd be doing this summer and I told them I was going back to the city.

What I didn't tell them was that I'd have to get a summer job walking dogs or selling magazine subscriptions, and spend my free time worrying about where I'd go to school in the fall.

"Oh, " one of the guys said. "That's cool. "

They went back to their conversation as if I'd never existed.

The only person I dreaded saying good-bye to was Grover, but as it turned out, I didn't have to. He'd booked a ticket to Manhattan on the same Greyhound as me and Hinata had, so there we were, together again, heading into the city.

During the whole bus ride, Grover kept glancing nervously down the aisle, watching the other passengers. It occurred to me that he'd always acted nervous and fidgety when we left Yancy, as if he expected something bad to happen. Before, I'd always assumed he was worried about getting teased. But there was nobody to tease him on the Greyhound.

Finally I couldn't stand it anymore, apparently Hinata couldn't either because she asked the same question I was about to ask .

She said, "Looking for Kindly Ones?"

Grover nearly jumped out of his seat, looking up at Hinata, since she was in the seat in front of us. "Wha-what do you mean?"

I confessed about us eavesdropping on him and Mr. Brunner the night before the exam.

Grover's eye twitched. "How much did you guys hear?"

"Oh ... Not much. What's the summer solstice deadline and what is Kindly Ones?"

Hinata answered "I was looking that up in my textbook last night, Perce" Her gaze lock right on Grover "Kindly Ones are greek monsters known as the Furies, monsters of the underworld that serve the a God of Death, Hades. That's what attacked us" Her gaze turned intense 'Right, Grover?"

He winced. "Look, you guys ... I was just worried for you, see? I mean, hallucinating about demon math teachers ... "

"Grover-"

"And I was telling Mr. Brunner that maybe you two were overstressed or something, because there was no such person as Mrs. Dodds, and ... "

"Grover, you're a really, really bad liar."

"So true" Hinata added

His ears turned pink.

From his shirt pocket, he fished out a grubby business card. "Just take this, okay? In case you two need me this summer."

The card was in fancy script, which was murder on my dyslexic eyes, but I finally made out something like:

Grover Underwood

Keeper

Half-Blood Hill

Long Island, New York

(800) 009-0009

"What's Half-"

"Don't say it aloud!" he yelped. "That's my, um ... Summer address. "

My heart sank. Grover had a summer home. I'd never considered that his family might be as rich as the others at Yancy.

Hinata took the card from me and read over it "You never you came from a rich family"

Grover fidget in his seat "Well...no rich but we do ok"

"Okay, " I said glumly. "So, like, if we want to come visit your mansion. "

He nodded. "Or ... Or if you need me. "

"Why would I need you?"

The card Hinata took smacked me in the face but I deserved it

That came out harsher than I meant it to.

"What Perce meant to say was what will you be helping us with, Grover?" Hinata asked

Grover blushed right down to his Adam's apple. "Look, Percy, the truth is, I-I kind of have to protect you two. "

We stared at him.

All year long, We'd gotten in fights, keeping bullies away from him. I'd lost sleep worrying that he'd get beaten up next year without us. And here he was acting like he was the one who defended me and Hinata.

"Grover, " I said, "what exactly are you protecting us from?"

There was a huge grinding noise under our feet. Black smoke poured from the dashboard and the whole bus filled with a smell like rotten eggs. The driver cursed and limped the Greyhound over to the side of the highway.

After a few minutes clanking around in the engine com-partment, the driver announced that we'd all have to get off. Grover, Hinata and I filed outside with everybody else.

We were on a stretch of country road-no place you'd notice if you didn't break down there. On our side of the highway was nothing but maple trees and litter from pass-ing cars. On the other side, across four lanes of asphalt shimmering with afternoon heat, was an old-fashioned fruit stand.

The stuff on sale looked really good: heaping boxes of bloodred cherries and apples, walnuts and apricots, jugs of cider in a claw-foot tub full of ice. There were no cus-tomers, just three old ladies sitting in rocking chairs in the shade of a maple tree, knitting the biggest pair of socks I'd ever seen.

I mean these socks were the size of sweaters, but they were clearly socks. The lady on the right knitted one of them. The lady on the left knitted the other. The lady in the middle held an enormous basket of electric-blue yarn.

All three women looked ancient, with pale faces wrinkled like fruit leather, silver hair tied back in white bandannas, bony arms sticking out of bleached cotton dresses.

The weirdest thing was, they seemed to be looking right at us, the left one the left stared at me, the one on the right at Hinata and the middle one looked back and forward at both of us.

"Um why are they staring at us like that?" Hinata asked while trying not to look that them, I guess they were making her uncomfortable

I looked over at Grover to say something about this and saw that the blood had drained from his face. His nose was twitching.

"Grover?" I said. "Hey, man-"

"Tell me they're not looking at you two. They are, aren't they?"

"Yeah. Weird, huh? You think those socks would fit me?"

"Not funny, Percy. Not funny at all. "

Hinata tapped my shoulder to get my attention. I looked at her, she was like in a daze, pointing to the three women so I turned to see what they were doing.

The old lady in the middle took out a huge pair of scissors-gold and silver, long-bladed, like shears. I heard Grover catch his breath.

"We're getting on the bus, " he told me. "Come on. "

"What?" I said. "It's a thousand degrees in there. "

"Come on!'" He pried open the door and climbed inside, but I stayed back. I was a little worried about Hinata, I never seen her like this before, it was like she was in a trance or something.

Across the road, the old ladies were still watching us. The middle one cut the yarn, and I swear I could hear that snip across four lanes of traffic. Her two friends balled up the electric-blue socks, leaving me wondering who they could possibly be for-Sasquatch or Godzilla.

But that seemed to help Hinata get out of her gaze.

"Hey, are you ok?" I asked her

Hinata held her head, pushing her bangs back "I-I'm fine, i-it's just that I t-think that I've seen them before b-but I can't seem to remember where or when"

At the rear of the bus, the driver wrenched a big chunk of smoking metal out of the engine compartment. The bus shuddered, and the engine roared back to life.

The passengers cheered.

"Darn right!" yelled the driver. He slapped the bus with his hat. "Everybody back on board!"

Once we got going, I started feeling feverish, as if I'd caught the flu.

Hinata looked like she was having a headache, since her head was still in her hands

Grover didn't look much better. He was shivering and his teeth were chattering.

"Grover?"

"Yeah?"

"What are you not telling us?"

He dabbed his forehead with his shirt sleeve. "You guys, what did you see back at the fruit stand?"

"You mean the old ladies? What is it about them, man? They're not like ... Mrs. Dodds, are they?"

His expression was hard to read, but I got the feeling that the fruit-stand ladies were something much, much worse than Mrs. Dodds. He said, "Just tell me what you saw. "

Hinata spoke from her seat "The three women were staring intensely at us"

"The middle one took out her scissors, and she cut the yarn. "

He closed his eyes and made a gesture with his fingers that might've been crossing himself, but it wasn't. It was something else, something almost older.

He said, "You saw her snip the cord. "

"Yeah. So?" But even as I said it, I knew it was a big deal.

"This is not happening, " Grover mumbled. He started chewing at his thumb. "I don't want this to be like the last time. "

"What last time?"

Standing from her seat, Hinata came over to me and Grover, looking directly at him "Grover, what is going on?"

Grover don't seem to hear her question because he kept talking to himself "Always sixth grade. They never get past sixth. "

"Grover, " I said, because he was really starting to scare me. "What are you talking about?"

"Why, Why is this happening?

Gripping his collar, Hinata lifted him to her eye level "Grover, what the hell is going on here? What are you not telling us?!" She yelled. I would have calmed her down but this time, I didn't. We needed answers and since he refuse to tell us when we asked him, I just we had to go with Hinata's idea instead.

But Grover didn't give us the answer we wanted, instead he looked at Hinata with scared and concern written all over his face "Hinata, are you going back home?"

"What are you-" But Grover cut her off and grabbed the hand that was holding his collar and pleaded, almost begging

"P-Please tell me, are you going home?!"

In all the time we've known Grover, I've seen him look this worried or scared for us, that face he was making really got me scared. Hinata stared to look a little scared too, she let go of his collar but didn't push away his hand "M-My parents have been a-away on a business trip, t-they won't be back until next week. B-But I didn't want to be alone for a week, so they made arrangements with Percy's mom for me to stay with them until they got back"

My eyes widened, this was the first time I was hearing about this "R-Really?!"

"It was kinda a surprise" She said

" T-Then, let me walk you guys home from the bus station. Promise me. "

This seemed like a strange request to me, but we promised he could.

"Is this like a superstition or something?" I asked.

No answer.

"Grover-that snipping of the yarn. Does that mean somebody is going to die?"

He looked at me mournfully, like he was already picking the kind of flowers I'd like best on my coffin.

A/N: Hey guy, I'm back with a new chapter, I'm sorry I haven't been updating but no one has reviewed or PM me about my story and that makes me think that no one likes it but I'm trying and hoping that soon people will like this story and review positively. So enjoy and please only positive things or suggestion on how I can improve this story, later.


	4. Grover Loses His Pants

**A/N: Hey, I'm back with another chapter! For those of you was were waiting so long, I'm deeply sorry! I've been so busy with my other stories and my college life, I've had almost no time. Also it's discouraging to see that I don't have any reviews for this story or that no one will take part in my little contest. But I've decided to keep going. So enjoy the chapter and please review (positive ones)!**

* * *

Confession time: Hinata and I ditched Grover as soon as we got to the bus terminal.

I know, I know. It was rude. But Grover was freaking me out, looking at me like I was a dead man, muttering "Why does this always happen?" and "Why does it always have to he sixth grade?"

Whenever he got upset, Grover's bladder acted up, so I wasn't surprised when, as soon as we got off the bus, he made me promise to wait for him, then made a beeline for the restroom. Instead of waiting, we got my suitcase, slipped outside, and were caught the first taxi uptown.

"Are you sure we should be ditching him like this?" Hinata asked with a guilty look on her face.

While putting our luggage in the trunk of the taxi, I said "I know we promised to wait but he's seriously scaring me, aren't you scared too?"

She looked at her hand, the one she had gripped Grover's collar and a concerned expression came to her face "It wasn't until he gripped my hand so tightly, giving me that look of desperation and fear, that I became scared" Her lips formed a thin line as she looked back at me "Whatever he knows is making him fear for our lives. Don't you think we should try talking to him again?"

I bit my lower lip. She was right, whatever Grover knew was making him scared for us, it's true that I want to figure out what's going on but I feel like the truth will scare me more that Grover had already have.

"I want to know too b-but lets just go back to my place and relax. We can ask him again when he calms down" I said closing the trunk.

I look at Hinata and she gave me one of her looks. She had a different look for everything and right now that look was saying 'you're running from the problem' and I'm not going to lie because I am. But this was just too much for me right now.

I gave her a pleading look, after a minute that look on her face softened . She sighed "Ok, fine. We'll wait until things cool down a bit"

I smiled, we both got into the taxi "East One hundred and fourth and First" I told the driver.

A word about my mother, before you meet her.

Her name is Sally Jackson and she's the best person in the world, which just proves my theory that the best people have the rottenest luck. Her own parents died in a plane crash when she was five, and she was raised by an uncle who didn't care much about her. She wanted to be a novelist, so she spent high school working to save enough money for a college with a good creative-writing program. Then her uncle got cancer, and she had to quit school her senior year to take care of him. After he died, she was left with no money, no family, and no diploma.

The only good break she ever got was meeting my dad.

I don't have any memories of him, just this sort of warm glow, maybe the barest trace of his smile. My mom doesn't like to talk about him because it makes her sad. She has no pictures.

See, they weren't married. She told me he was rich and important, and their relationship was a secret. Then one day, he set sail across the Atlantic on some important jour-ney, and he never came back.

Lost at sea, my mom told me. Not dead. Lost at sea.

She worked odd jobs, took night classes to get her high school diploma, and raised me on her own. She never com-plained or got mad. Not even once. But I knew I wasn't an easy kid.

Finally, she married Gabe Ugliano, who was nice the first thirty seconds we knew him, then showed his true colors as a world-class jerk. When I was young, I nick-named him Smelly Gabe. I'm sorry, but it's the truth. The guy reeked like moldy garlic pizza wrapped in gym shorts.

Between the two of us, we made my mom's life pretty hard. The way Smelly Gabe treated her, the way he and I got along ... well, when I came home is a good example.

Hinata and I walked into our little apartment, hoping my mom would be home from work. Instead, Smelly Gabe was in the living room, playing poker with his buddies. The television blared ESPN. Chips and beer cans were strewn all over the carpet.

"This place is a dump" Hinata whispered and I agreed with her

Hardly looking up, he said around his cigar, "So, you're home."

He looked up and his eyes widen when he saw Hinata standing next to me. He leaned back against his chair as if he was trying to get away from her "You brought that girl here?!"

Let me explain, the first time Hinata met Smelly Gave was about 3 months after we became friends. Right then and there I knew she didn't like him. He tried to act all sweet and innocent in front of her but she could see right through his phony act. There was a time where they got into an argument, when it got pretty heated Smelly Gabe tried to slap her but things didn't go his way.

To make a long story short, he ended up with a broken arm, which I was pretty happy about. They went to court because of it and of course Hinata won the case because it was in self defense. After that, she was still allowed to visit us but Smelly Gabe couldn't put his hands oh her or else he would end up in jail.

I did my best to contain a smirk from coming to my face "She's staying with us for the week, mom and her parents talked it over."

"Better behave yourself, Mr. Gabe, I don't think Orange is your color" she said in a mocking tone

Smelly Gabe glared intensely at her, clutching his fist. I could tell he wanted nothing more than to kick her out but he knew he couldn't. So he just looked back at his game with his face red with anger "Just keep that girl away from me"

"Whatever, where's my mom?" I asked

"Working," he said. "You got any cash?"

That was it. No Welcome back. Good to see you. How has your life been the last six months?

Gabe had put on weight. He looked like a tuskless walrus in thrift-store clothes. He had about three hairs on his head, all combed over his bald scalp, as if that made him handsome or something.

He managed the Electronics Mega-Mart in Queens, but he stayed home most of the time. I don't know why he hadn't been fired long before. He just kept on collecting paychecks, spending the money on cigars that made me nauseous, and on beer, of course. Always beer. Whenever I was home, he expected me to provide his gambling funds. He called that our "guy secret." Meaning, if I told my mom, he would punch my lights out.

"You ever heard of a greeting?" Hinata asked

He rolled his eyes "Oh sorry, Hi, you got any cash?"

Hinata's eyes twitched at his response. She really hates when people are sarcastic, most as much as when they roll their eyes at her.

"I don't have any cash," I told him. He raised a greasy eyebrow.

Gabe could sniff out money like a bloodhound, which was surprising, since his own smell should've covered up everything else.

"You took a taxi from the bus station," he said. Probably paid with a twenty. Got six, seven bucks in change. Somebody expects to live under this roof, he ought to carry his own weight. Am I right, Eddie?"

Eddie, the super of the apartment building, looked at me with a twinge of sympathy. "Come on, Gabe," he said. "The kid just got here."

"Am I right?" Gabe repeated.

Eddie scowled into his bowl of pretzels. The other two guys passed gas in harmony which made Hinata gag a little in her mouth.

"Fine," I said. I dug a wad of dollars out of my pocket and threw the money on the table. "I hope you lose."

"Your report card came, brain boy!" he shouted after me. "I wouldn't act so snooty!"

I led Hinata to my room and slammed the door but it wasn't really my room. During school months, it was Gabe's "study." He didn't study anything in there except old car magazines, but he loved shoving my stuff in the closet, leaving his muddy boots on my windowsill, and doing his best to make the place smell like his nasty cologne and cigars and stale beer.

I dropped my suitcase on the bed. Home sweet home.

"He hasn't changed one bit" Hinata stated, looking around the room "He turned this place into a garbage dump"

I sighed

She looked around the room again, then at me with a twinkle in her eyes "We should clean it"

"You're kidding me, right?"

"Nope, I'm serious but we'll do things a little different" She said.

She went to the window and opened it, sticking her out and saw a dumpster about 3 floors below us "This is perfect"

I asked "What's perfect?"

Hinata took hold of Smelly Gabe's muddy boots "Now these boots don't belong on the windowsill, Perce."

She stuck the boots out of the window and dropped them "They belong in storage, right?"

I look out the window and saw the boots were now in the dumpster. So that's what she meant when she said 'cleaning' "Have I ever told you, you're awesome?"

We started to take some of Smelly Gabe's dirty clothes, his shoes and his magazines and threw them out. I started to feel better as we were 'cleaning'. Man, pay back feels so good.

Even after all the 'cleaning', the awful smell was still in my room. Gabe's smell was almost worse than the nightmares about Mrs. Dodds, or the sound of that old fruit lady's shears snipping the yarn.

But as soon as I thought that, my legs felt weak. I remembered Grover's look of panic-how he'd made us promise we wouldn't go home without him. A sudden chill rolled through me. I felt like someone- something-was looking for us right now, maybe pounding its way up the stairs, growing long, horrible talons.

Then I heard my mom's voice. "Percy? Hinata?"

She opened the bedroom door, and my fears melted.

My mother can make me feel good just by walking into the room. Her eyes sparkle and change color in the light. Her smile is as warm as a quilt. She's got a few gray streaks mixed in with her long brown hair, but I never think of her as old. When she looks at me, it's like she's seeing all the good things about me, none of the bad. I've never heard her raise her voice or say an unkind word to anyone, not even me or Gabe.

"Oh, Percy." She hugged me tight. "I can't believe it. You've grown since Christmas!"

Her red-white-and-blue Sweet on America uniform smelled like the best things in the world: chocolate, licorice, and all the other stuff she sold at the candy shop in Grand Central. She'd brought me a huge bag of "free samples," the way she always did when I came home.

She looked over at Hinata "And Hinata, you've become so beautiful since the last time I saw you"

"Please Mrs. Jackson, I'm not use to being called that" Hinata said blushing

Being the tomboy that she is, Hinata is not use to being called pretty or beautiful. When someone calls her those things, she gets all flustered and embarrassed and her cheeks turn red. At time like those, I can't help but think she's cute when she gets like that. Of course, if I ever tell her that to her face, she'll probably hurt me to cover up her embarrassment

We sat together on the edge of the bed. While Hinata and I attacked the blueberry sour strings, Mom ran her hand through my hair and demanded to know everything I hadn't put in my letters and explained to Hinata where she'll be sleeping during her stay here. She didn't mention anything about my getting expelled. She didn't seem to care about that. But was I okay? Was her little boy doing all right?

I told her she was smothering me, and to lay off and all that, but secretly, I was really, really glad to see her.

From the other room, Gabe yelled, "Hey, Sally how about some bean dip, huh?"

I gritted my teeth.

My mom is the nicest lady in the world. She should've been married to a millionaire, not to some jerk like Gabe.

For her sake, I tried to sound upbeat about my last days at Yancy Academy. I told her Hinata and I wasn't too down about our expulsion, that we still on being in the same school together. I'd lasted almost the whole year this time. I'd made some new friends and kept my old one. I'd done pretty well in Latin. And honestly, the fights hadn't been as bad as the headmaster said. I liked Yancy Academy. I really did. I put such a good spin on the year, I almost convinced myself. I started choking up, thinking about Grover and Mr. Brunner. Even Nancy Bobofit suddenly didn't seem so bad.

Until that trip to the museum ...

"What?" my mom asked. Her eyes tugged at my conscience, trying to pull out the secrets. "Did something scare you?"

"No, Mom."

I looked over to Hinata, I knew she was thinking the same thing I was. I could tell by how her eyes darken a bit and her hands were clutched on her laps.

My mom turned and looked at her "My dear, did something scare you too"

Hinata clutched her fist tightly like she was trying her best not to tell my mom anything, she forced a smile "I'm fine, Mrs. Jackson"

I felt bad lying. I wanted to tell her about Mrs. Dodds and the three old ladies with the yarn, but I thought it would sound stupid.

She pursed her lips. She knew we were holding back, but she didn't push us.

"I have a surprise for you," she said. "We're going to the beach."

My eyes widened. "Montauk?"

"Three nights-same cabin."

"When?"

She smiled. "As soon as I get changed."

I couldn't believe it. My mom and I hadn't been to Montauk the last two summers, because Gabe said there wasn't enough money.

"And Hinata, you can come with us" Mom said to her

Her eyes widen with surprise written in them. During the first year of our friendship, I told Hinata about Montauk Beach and how special it is to my mom and me. Sending three days there with two of the most important people in my life, this day may turn out to be not so bad.

"Mrs. Jackson, I appreciate the offer but this sounds like more of a mother-son thing. I don't want to ruin that." Hinata said

"It's ok" I told her "It'll be great having you there. Besides its better than staying with Gabe"

She thought about it for a moment "Well, when you put that way" She smiles "I'd love to come with you guys, thank you"

Gabe appeared in the doorway and growled, "Bean dip, Sally? Didn't you hear me?"

I wanted to punch him, but I met my mom's eyes and I understood she was offering me a deal: be nice to Gabe for a little while. Just until she was ready to leave for Montauk. Then we would get out of here.

"I was on my way, honey," she told Gabe. "We were just talking about the trip."

Gabe's eyes got small. "The trip? You mean you were serious about that?"

"I knew it," I muttered. "He won't let us go."

"Of course he will," my mom said evenly. "Your step-father is just worried about money. That's all. Besides," she added, "Gabriel won't have to settle for bean dip. I'll make him enough seven-layer dip for the whole weekend. Guacamole. Sour cream. The works."

Gabe softened a bit. "So this money for your trip ... it comes out of your clothes budget, right?"

"Yes, honey," my mother said

"And you won't take my car anywhere but there and back."

"We'll be very careful."

He glances at Hinata "And you'll take that girl with you?"

Hinata softly growled, my mom laid her hands on Hinata's, their eyes met. Mom was silently telling her the same thing she did with me. "Yes honey, I think it would be nice to take her with us"

Gabe scratched his double chin. "Maybe if you hurry with that seven-layer dip ... And maybe if the kids apologizes for interrupting my poker game."

"Say what?!" Hinata angrily said aloud

Maybe if I kick you in your soft spot, I thought. And make you sing soprano for a week.

But my mom's eyes warned us not to make him mad.

Why did she put up with this guy? I wanted to scream. Why did she care what he thought?

"I'm sorry," I muttered. "I'm really sorry I interrupted your incredibly important poker game. Please go back to it right now."

Hinata just bowed her head to him and said something in what I think is Japanese

"In English, girl" Gabe said

She rolled her eyes "I said I'm very sorry, Mr. Gabe"

Gabe's eyes narrowed. His tiny brain was probably trying to detect sarcasm in our statements. "Yeah, whatever," he decided.

He went back to his game.

"Thank you, kids," my mom said. "Once we get to Montauk, we'll talk more about... whatever you've forgotten to tell me, okay?"

For a moment, I thought I saw anxiety in her eyes the same fear I'd seen in Grover during the bus ride as if my mom too felt an odd chill in the air.

But then her smile returned, and I figured I must have been mistaken. She ruffled my hair and went to make Gabe his seven-layer dip.

I looked over at Hinata "What did you really say?"

She smiled " I said 'I'll apologize when you learn what a shower is'"

We both laughed and high five each other

An hour later we were ready to leave.

Gabe took a break from his poker game long enough to watch me lug my mom's bags and Hinata putting her own to the car. He kept griping and groaning about losing her cooking-and more important, his '78 Camaro-for the whole weekend.

"Not a scratch on this car, brain boy," he warned me as I loaded the last bag. "Not one little scratch."

Like I'd be the one driving. I was twelve. But that didn't matter to Gabe. If a seagull so much as pooped on his paint job, he'd find a way to blame me.

Watching him lumber back toward the apartment build-ing, I got so mad I did something I can't explain. As Gabe reached the doorway, I made the hand gesture I'd seen Grover make on the bus, a sort of warding-off-evil gesture, a clawed hand over my heart, then a shoving movement toward Gabe. The screen door slammed shut so hard it whacked him in the butt and sent him flying up the stair-case as if he'd been shot from a cannon.

Hinata must have been watching me because I heard her gasp besides me "Perce, how did you?"

Maybe it was just the wind, or some freak accident with the hinges, but I didn't stay long enough to find out.

I took her arm and quickly got us into the Camaro and told my mom to step on it.

"Wow, this place is...something" Hinata muttered as she was looking around

Our rental cabin was on the south shore, way out at the tip of Long Island. It was a little pastel box with faded curtains, half sunken into the dunes. There was always sand in the sheets and spiders in the cabinets, and most of the time the sea was too cold to swim in.

I loved the place.

We'd been going there since I was a baby. My mom had been going even longer. She never exactly said, but I knew why the beach was special to her. It was the place where she'd met my dad.

As we got closer to Montauk, she seemed to grow younger, years of worry and work disappearing from her face. Her eyes turned the color of the sea.

We got there at sunset, opened all the cabin's windows, and went through our usual cleaning routine. Mom said since Hinata was our guest, she didn't have to help but she did anyway. She was cool like that. As we were cleaning, she looked out of the window and enjoyed the sunset. Sometime ago, Hinata told me that the sun made her feel safe. She never know why, it just did.

After cleaning, we walked on the beach, fed blue corn chips to the seagulls, and munched on blue jelly beans, blue saltwater taffy, and all the other free samples my mom had brought from work. Mom said Hinata's hair color almost looked like the blue jelly beans and Hinata just laughed.

I guess I should explain the blue food.

See, Gabe had once told my mom there was no such thing. They had this fight, which seemed like a really small thing at the time. But ever since, my mom went out of her way to eat blue. She baked blue birthday cakes. She mixed blueberry smoothies. She bought blue-corn tortilla chips and brought home blue candy from the shop. This-along with keeping her maiden name, Jackson, rather than calling herself Mrs. Ugliano was proof that she wasn't totally suckered by Gabe. She did have a rebellious streak, like me.

When it got dark, we made a fire. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mom told us stories about when she was a kid, back before her parents died in the plane crash. She told us about the books she wanted to write someday, when she had enough money to quit the candy shop.

"I know you'll earn enough money soon, Mrs. Jackson!" Hinata said as if she was stating it as a fact

Mom smiled "Thank you, Hinata. When my books come out, I'll give you the few for free!"

"I look forward to it!"

After that, I got up the nerve to ask about what was always on my mind whenever we came to Montauk my father. Mom's eyes went all misty. I figured she would tell me the same things she always did, but I never got tired of hearing them.

"He was kind, Percy," she said. "Tall, handsome, and powerful. But gentle, too. You have his black hair, you know, and his green eyes."

Mom fished a blue jelly bean out of her candy bag. "I wish he could see you, Percy. He would be so proud."

I wondered how she could say that. What was so great about me? A dyslexic, hyperactive boy with a D+ report card, kicked out of school for the sixth time in six years.

"How old was I?" I asked. "I mean ... when he left?"

She watched the flames. "He was only with me for one summer, Percy. Right here at this beach. This cabin."

"But... he knew me as a baby."

"No, honey. He knew I was expecting a baby, but he never saw you. He had to leave before you were born."

I tried to square that with the fact that I seemed to remember ... something about my father. A warm glow. A smile

I had always assumed he knew me as a baby. My mom had never said it outright, but still, I'd felt it must be true. Now, to be told that he'd never even seen me ...

I felt angry at my father. Maybe it was stupid, but I resented him for going on that ocean voyage, for not having the guts to marry my mom. He'd left us, and now we were stuck with Smelly Gabe.

"Are you going to send me away again?" I asked her. "To another boarding school?"

She pulled a marshmallow from the fire.

"I don't know, honey." Her voice was heavy. "I think ... I think we'll have to do something."

"Because you don't want me around?" I regretted the words as soon as they were out.

Hinata gave me a glare and my mom's eyes welled with tears. She took my hand, squeezed it tight. "Oh, Percy, no. I-I have to, honey. For your own good. I have to send you away."

Her words reminded me of what Mr. Brunner had said that it was best for me and Hinata to leave Yancy. "Because I'm not normal," I said

"You say that as if it's a bad thing, Percy. But you don't realize how important you are. I thought Yancy Academy would be far enough away. I thought you'd finally be safe." She looked at Hinata as if this involved her too "...we thought both of you would"

Hinata looked confused "We?"

"Your parents and I, Hinata. We thought you and Percy would be safe there"

"Safe from what?"

She met my eyes, and a flood of memories came back to me all the weird, scary things that had ever happened to me, some of which I'd tried to forget.

During third grade, a man in a black trench coat had stalked me on the playground. When the teachers threatened to call the police, he went away growling, but no one believed me when I told them that under his broad-brimmed hat, the man only had one eye, right in the middle of his head.

Before that-a really early memory. I was in preschool, and a teacher accidentally put me down for a nap in a cot that a snake had slithered into. My mom screamed when she came to pick me up and found me playing with a limp, scaly rope I'd somehow managed to strangle to death with my meaty toddler hands.

In every single school, something creepy had happened, something unsafe, and I was forced to move. People thought I was crazy except for Hinata because she said the same thing happened to her.

Hinata told me when she was five, her family went to their cabin in the woods. According to her, while she was picking berries from the trees around the area, there was a wolf, the kind you would see in the coldest of places, looking at her. Her parents never believed her. They also didn't believe the time she saw a woman, who wore a dress of leaves, turn into a tree.

I knew we should tell my mom about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds at the art museum, about our weird hallucination that I had sliced my math teacher into dust with a sword in order to protect my friend. But I couldn't make myself tell her. And I made Hinata promise me not to tell her until I was ready. I had a strange feeling the news would end our trip to Montauk, and I didn't want that.

"We've tried to keep you two as close to us as we could," my mom said. "They told us that was a mistake. But there's only one other option, Kids-the place they wanted to send you two. And I just... We just can't stand to do it."

"So, Percy's father and my parents wanted us to go to a special school?" Hinata asked. She looked very confused and I couldn't blame her, I was just as confused as she was.

"Not a school," she said softly. "A summer camp."

My head was spinning. Why would my dad-who hadn't even stayed around long enough to see me born- talk to my mom about a summer camp? And if it was so important, why hadn't she ever mentioned it before?

But there was one thing I realized "Mom, does dad know Hinata's parents?"

She looked at the fire unsurely, as if she doesn't know whether to tell us or not "Yes...he does...but-"

Hinata shrugged "Well then it's simple, all I have to do is call my parents and-"

"Sweetie, Percy's father...knows your other...parents"

Suddenly the fire got a lot hotter and bigger, like someone just added fuel to the flame. Hinata's expression darken the moment my mom said that "I see"

I looked from my mom to Hinata and back "Um...what does mom mean by 'other parents'?"

She angrily threw her stick with the blue marshmallows into the fire and stood up, glaring at the fire "It's not like it's a big deal or anything."

"What's not a big deal?" I've seen her angry before but not like this. She wasn't yelling or trying to hit something, she just stood there.

"I'm adopted..."

I felt my heart skip a beat, my eyes widen in shock "You're what?"

I didn't need her to tell me she wasn't going to repeat herself, the look in her eyes said it all. She excused herself, saying she wasn't feeling well and went back to the cabin

I looked over to my mom "Mom, how...what is-..."

"I'm sorry, Percy," she said, seeing the look in my eyes. "But I can't talk about it. All I can say is W-We couldn't send you both to that place. It might mean saying good-bye to you for good."

"For good? But if it's only a summer camp ..."

She turned toward the fire, and I knew from her expression that if I asked her any more questions she would start to cry.

That night I had a vivid dream.

It was storming on the beach, and four beautiful animals, a white horse and a golden eagle, were trying to kill each other at the edge of the surf. A crow seem to be trying to stop the eagle, shrieking at the eagle and a dove just flapped it's wing above, watching the whole thing quietly. The eagle swooped down and slashed the horse's muzzle with its huge talons. The horse reared up and kicked at the eagles wings. The eagle recovers, going back shrieking loudly at the crow and dove, but just the crow bravely shrieked back. As they fought, the ground rumbled, and a monstrous voice chuckled somewhere beneath the earth, goading the animals to fight harder.

I ran toward them, knowing I had to stop them from killing each other, but I was running in slow motion. I knew I would be too late. I saw the eagle dive down, its beak aimed at the horse's wide eyes, and I screamed, No!

I woke with a start.

Outside, it really was storming, the kind of storm that cracks trees and blows down houses. There was no horse, dolphin, dove or eagle on the beach, just lightning making false daylight, and twenty-foot waves pounding the dunes like artillery.

I looked around and saw that Hinata had looked like she just woken up like me. Her eye were wide, she was sweating and frantically looking around the room. It made me wonder what if she had the same dream as me?

With the next thunderclap, my mom woke. She sat up, eyes wide, and said, "Hurricane."

I knew that was crazy. Long Island never sees hurricanes this early in the summer. But the ocean seemed to have forgotten. Over the roar of the wind, I heard a distant bellow, an angry, tortured sound that made my hair stand on end.

Then a much closer noise, like mallets in the sand. A desperate voice-someone yelling, pounding on our cabin door.

My mother sprang out of bed in her nightgown and threw open the lock.

Grover stood framed in the doorway against a backdrop of pouring rain. But he wasn't... he wasn't exactly Grover.

"Searching all night," he gasped. "What were you two thinking?"

My mother looked at us in terror not scared of Grover, but of why he'd come.

"Percy, Hinata.." she said, shouting to be heard over the rain. "What happened at school? What didn't you tell me?"

I was frozen, looking at Grover. I couldn't understand what I was seeing. Hinata seem to be having the same problem because she kept rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't seeing things.

"O Zeu kai alloi theoi!" he yelled. "It's right behind me! Didn't you tell her?"

I was too shocked to register that he'd just cursed in Ancient Greek, and I'd understood him perfectly. I was too shocked to wonder how Grover had gotten here by himself in the middle of the night. Because Grover didn't have his pants on-and where his legs should be ... where his legs should be ...

My mom looked at me sternly and talked in a tone she'd never used before: "Percy. Tell me now!"

I stammered something about the old ladies at the fruit stand, and Mrs. Dodds, and my mom stared at me. She looks over to Hinata and she told her the same thing from her view. Mom's face became deathly pale in the flashes of lightning.

She grabbed her purse, tossed me my rain jacket, and said, "Get to the car. All of you. Go!"

Grover ran for the Camaro but he wasn't running, exactly. He was trotting, shaking his shaggy hindquarters, and suddenly his story about a muscular disorder in his legs made sense to me. I understood how he could run so fast and still limp when he walked.

Because where his feet should be, there were no feet. There were cloven hooves.


	5. My Mom Teaches Us Bullfighting

4 MY MOTHER TEACHES US BULLFIGHTING

We tore through the night along dark country roads. Wind slammed against the Camaro. Rain lashed the wind-shield. I didn't know how my mom could see anything, but she kept her foot on the gas.

Every time there was a flash of lightning, Hinata and I looked at Grover sitting next to me in the backseat and I wondered if I'd gone insane, or if he was wearing some kind of shag-carpet pants. But, no, the smell was one I remembered from kindergarten field trips to the petting zoo- lanolin, like from wool. The smell of a wet barnyard animal.

All I could think to say was, "So, you and my mom... know each other?"

Grover's eyes flitted to the rearview mirror, though there were no cars behind us. "Not exactly," he said. "I mean, we've never met in person. But she and the others knew I was watching you two."

"Others?" Hinata asked

"Your parents" He said

"Watching us?" I asked

"Keeping tabs on you two. Making sure you guys were okay. But I wasn't faking being your friend," he added hastily. "I am your friend."

"Urn ... what are you, exactly?"

"That doesn't matter right now."

"Oh really?" Hinata said raising her eyebrow

"It doesn't matter? From the waist down, our friend is a donkey-"

Grover let out a sharp, throaty "Blaa-ha-ha!"

I'd heard him make that sound before, but I'd always assumed it was a nervous laugh. Now I realized it was more of an irritated bleat.

"Goat!" he cried.

"What?"

"I'm a goat from the waist down."

"You just said it didn't matter."

"You did say that" Hinata added "Besides, it's an easy mistake. I mean look that them!"

"Blaa-ha-ha! There are satyrs who would trample you underhoofs for such an insult!"

"Did you say what I think you said?! Satyrs?!" Hinata asked, her eyes widen in shock

"Whoa. Wait. Satyrs. You mean like ... Mr. Brunner's myths?"

"Were those old ladies at the fruit stand a myth, Percy? Was Mrs. Dodds a myth?"

"So you admit there was a Mrs. Dodds!" Hinata shouted

"Of course."

"Then why-" I started

"The less you guys knew, the fewer monsters you'd attract," Grover said, like that should be perfectly obvious. "We put Mist over the humans' eyes. We hoped you'd think the Kindly One was a hallucination. But it was no good. You two started to realize who you are."

"Who I-wait a minute, what do you mean?"

"Who I am?! I already know who I am!" Hinata said like it was a fact

Grover shook his head "No, you don't. Who you really are...that's from your real-"

"Shut up!" She yelled, her fist clutch tightly the same way they did at the beach "Who you're talking about...I don't want anything to do with them! They will never be my real parents!"

She looked like she was about to cry and she never cries. I wanted to cheer her up "Hinata-"

The weird bellowing noise rose up again somewhere behind us, closer than before. Whatever was chasing us was still on our trail.

"Percy, Hinata..." my mom said, "there's too much to explain and not enough time. We have to get you two to safety."

"Safety from what? Who's after us?"

"Oh, nobody much," Grover said, obviously still miffed about the donkey comment. "Just the Lord of the Dead and a few of his blood-thirstiest minions."

Hinata seem to have forget about the talk about her real parents because she looked at him wide eyed in shock again "Come again?!"

"Grover!"

"Sorry, Mrs. Jackson. Could you drive faster, please?"

I tried to wrap my mind around what was happening, but I couldn't do it. I knew this wasn't a dream. I had no imagination. I could never dream up something this weird.

My mom made a hard left. We swerved onto a narrower road, racing past darkened farmhouses and wooded hills and PICK YOUR OWN STRAWBERRIES signs on white picket fences.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"The summer camp I told you about." My mother's voice was tight; she was trying for my sake not to be scared. "The place your father and her parents wanted to send you two."

"The place you didn't want me to go."

"No way..." Hinata quietly said

This can not be good. Grover looked over at her like she was insane "What do you mean-"

But she started to toy with the lock to car door "Stop the car, now!" She shouted

My mom glanced at Hinata through the rearview mirror "Hinata, please stop, you have to-"

"I don't have to do anything! You think I'll follow the will of the people who abandoned me?! Forget it!" She started banging her fist on the door "Let me out!"

She kept banging on the door until my mom shouted "Stop it this instant, young lady!"

I was surprised, this was now the second I've heard my mom raise her voice. It seem to her effected Hinata too because she had stop banging on the door, glaring at her knees.

"Please, Hinata dear," my mother begged. "This is hard enough. Try to understand. You're in danger. Both of you are"

"Because some old ladies cut yarn."

"Those weren't old ladies," Grover said. "Those were the Fates. Do you know what it means-the fact they appeared in front of you ? They only do that when you're about to ... when someone's about to die."

"What did you say?! Did I just hear Grover say 'you'?!" Hinata said sharply still upset with the situation

"Whoa. You said 'you.'"

"No I didn't. I said 'someone.'"

"You meant 'you.' As in us."

"I meant you, like 'someone.' Not you, you."

"Seriously you two are giving me a headache!" Hinata said holding her head in her hands

"Boys!" my mom said.

She pulled the wheel hard to the right, and I got a glimpse of a figure she'd swerved to avoid a dark fluttering shape now lost behind us in the storm.

"What was that?" I asked.

"We're almost there," my mother said, ignoring my question. "Another mile. Please. Please. Please."

I didn't know where there was, but I found myself leaning forward in the car, anticipating, wanting us to arrive.

Outside, nothing but rain and darkness the kind of empty countryside you get way out on the tip of Long Island. I thought about Mrs. Dodds and the moment when she'd changed into the thing with pointed teeth and leathery wings. My limbs went numb from delayed shock. She really hadn't been human. She'd meant to kill Hinata and me.

Then I thought about Mr. Brunner ... and the sword he had thrown me. Before I could ask Grover about that, the hair rose on the back of my neck. There was a blinding flash, a jaw-rattling boom!, and our car exploded.

I remember feeling weightless, like I was being crushed, fried, and hosed down all at the same time. I peeled my forehead off the back of the driver's seat and said, "Ow."

"Percy!" my mom shouted.

"I'm okay... ."

"Hinata, sweetie are you-"

"Don't worry, Mrs. Jackson. Aside from my headache getting worse, I'm ok" She said holding her head steady

I tried to shake off the daze. I wasn't dead. The car hadn't really exploded. We'd swerved into a ditch. Our driver's side doors were wedged in the mud. The roof had cracked open like an eggshell and rain was pouring in.

Hinata looked at the missing roof "How the hell did that happen?"

Lightning. That was the only explanation. We'd been blasted right off the road. Next to me in the backseat was a big motionless lump. "Grover!"

He was slumped over, blood trickling from the side of his mouth. Hinata crawled over to him and looked for any head injuries while I shook his furry hip, thinking, No! Even if you are half barnyard animal, you're my best friend and I don't want you to die!

Then he groaned "Food," and I knew there was hope.

"Well he'll live but he hit his head pretty bad, worse than us" She confirmed

"Kids" my mother said, "we have to ..." Her voice faltered.

Hinata voice shuddered "Percy, please...tell me that thing isn't real..."

I looked back. In a flash of lightning, through the mud-spattered rear windshield, I saw a figure lumbering toward us on the shoulder of the road. The sight of it made my skin crawl. It was a dark silhouette of a huge guy, like a football player. He seemed to be holding a blanket over his head. His top half was bulky and fuzzy. His upraised hands made it look like he had horns.

I swallowed hard. "Who is-"

"Percy, Hinata," my mother said, deadly serious. "Get out of the car."

My mother threw herself against the driver's-side door. It was jammed shut in the mud. I tried mine. Stuck too. I looked up desperately at the hole in the roof. It might've been an exit, but the edges were sizzling and smoking.

"Climb out the passenger's side!" my mother told me. "Percy, Hinata- you two have to run. Do you see that big tree?"

"What?" We both cried out

Another flash of lightning, and through the smoking hole in the roof I saw the tree she meant: a huge, White House Christmas tree-sized pine at the crest of the nearest hill.

"That's the property line," my mom said. "Get over that hill and you'll see a big farmhouse down in the valley. Run and don't look back. Yell for help. Don't stop until you reach the door."

"Mom, you're coming too."

Her face was pale, her eyes as sad as when she looked at the ocean.

"No!" I shouted. "You are coming with me. Help me carry Grover."

"Food!" Grover moaned, a little louder.

"Hush, Grover!" Hinata said

The man with the blanket on his head kept coming toward us, making his grunting, snorting noises. As he got closer, I realized he couldn't be holding a blanket over his head, because his hands-huge meaty hands-were swing-ing at his sides. There was no blanket. Meaning the bulky, fuzzy mass that was too big to be his head ... was his head. And the points that looked like horns ...

"He doesn't want us," my mother told me. "He wants you and Hinata. Besides, I can't cross the property line."

"But..."

"Mrs. Jackson, you can't be..."

"We don't have time, You two. Go. Please."

I got mad, then mad at my mother, at Grover the goat, at the thing with horns that was lumbering toward us slowly and deliberately like, like a bull.

I climbed across Grover and pushed the door open into the rain. "We're going together. Come on, Mom."

"I told you-"

"Mom! I am not leaving you. Help us with Grover."

I didn't wait for her answer. I scrambled outside, dragging Grover from the car with Hinata's. He was surprisingly light, but I couldn't have carried him very far if my mom and Hinata hadn't come to my aid.

Together, mom and I draped Grover's arms over our shoulders while Hinata carried his legs...or hooves and started stumbling uphill through wet waist high grass.

Glancing back, I got my first clear look at the monster. He was seven feet tall, easy, his arms and legs like something from the cover of Muscle Man magazine-bulging biceps and triceps and a bunch of other 'ceps, all stuffed like baseballs under vein-webbed skin. He wore no clothes except underwear I mean, bright white Fruit of the Looms which would've looked funny, except that the top half of his body was so scary. Coarse brown hair started at about his belly button and got thicker as it reached his shoulders.

His neck was a mass of muscle and fur leading up to his enormous head, which had a snout as long as my arm, snotty nostrils with a gleaming brass ring, cruel black eyes, and horns-enormous black-and- white horns with points you just couldn't get from an electric sharpener.

I recognized the monster, all right. He had been in one of the first stories Mr. Brunner told us. But he couldn't be real.

I blinked the rain out of my eyes. "That's-"

"Pasiphae's son," my mother said. "I wish I'd known how badly they want to kill you both."

"That thing..." Hinata started looking back that the creature "That thing is the-"

"Don't say anything..." Mom said

"But he's the Min-"

"Don't say his name," she warned. "Names have power."

The pine tree was still way too far-a hundred yards uphill at least.

I glanced behind me again.

The bull-man hunched over our car, looking in the win-dows-or not looking, exactly. More like snuffling, nuzzling. I wasn't sure why he bothered, since we were only about fifty feet away.

"Food?" Grover moaned

"Shhh," I told him. "Mom, what's he doing? Doesn't he see us?"

"His sight and hearing are terrible," she said. "He goes by smell. But he'll figure out where we are soon enough."

As if on cue, the bull-man bellowed in rage. He picked up Gabe's Camaro by the torn roof, the chassis creaking and groaning. He raised the car over his head and threw it down the road. It slammed into the wet asphalt and skidded in a shower of sparks for about half a mile before coming to a stop. The gas tank exploded.

Not a scratch, I remembered Gabe saying. Oops.

Hinata drops Grover's legs and turns to the direction of the creature "Go on ahead..."

My mom looked at her like she was crazy "What are you talking about?!"

I watched as Hinata pulled out her bronze kunai knife. My blood ran cold at the sight, she was planning to do the same thing she tried to do with . She was going to make herself bait again.

I reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling her towards me "No, you can't do this!"

"I have to do something, it'll be fine." She said trying to get out of my grip "I'll distract him, hopefully long enough for you guys to get away"

"No! You're staying with me here!" I cried out.

I was scared, very scared. I was scared of what's been happening for months, I was about what happened on the bus with Grover and I'm really scared of what's happening now. But the thought of my longest and bestest friend taking on that thing alone, I just don't want to imagine it. It would be the scariest thing ever.

I tighten my grip on her "Please...don't go"

"Percy..." She looked at me and opened her mouth to reply back

Another bellow of rage from the bull man cuts her off

"Percy, Hinata, listen to me" my mom said. "When he sees us, he'll charge. Wait until the last second, then jump out of the way directly sideways. He can't change directions very well once he's charging. Do you understand?"

"How do you know all this?"

"I've been worried about an attack for a long time. I should have expected this. I was selfish, keeping you near me."

"Keeping me near you? But-"

Then another bellow of rage was heard and the bull-man started tromping uphill. He'd smelled us.

The pine tree was only a few more yards, but the hill was getting steeper and slicker, and Grover wasn't getting any lighter.

The bull-man closed in. Another few seconds and he'd be on top of us.

My mother must've been exhausted, but she shouldered Grover. "Go, You two! Separate! Remember what I said."

I didn't want to split up, but I had the feeling she was right-it was our only chance. Hinata and I sprinted to the left, turned, and saw the creature bearing down on us. His black eyes glowed with hate. He reeked like rotten meat.

He lowered his head and charged, those razor-sharp horns aimed straight at us.

"Percy, listen" Hinata said "In about 5-6 seconds, jump to the right and I'll jump left!"

The fear in my stomach made me want to bolt, but that wouldn't work. I could never outrun this thing. So I held my ground, and at the last moment, I jumped to the right. I looked to the left and saw Hinata safe

The bull-man stormed past like a freight train, then bellowed with frustration and turned, but not toward us this time, toward my mother, who was setting Grover down in the grass.

We'd reached the crest of the hill. Down the other side I could see a valley, just as my mother had said, and the lights of a farmhouse glowing yellow through the rain. But that was half a mile away. We'd never make it.

"Percy! Your mom!" Hinata shouted

The bull-man grunted, pawing the ground. He kept eyeing my mother, who was now retreating slowly downhill, back toward the road, trying to lead the monster away from Grover.

"Run, Kids!" she told me. "I can't go any farther. Run!"

But I just stood there, frozen in fear, as the monster charged her. She tried to sidestep, as she'd told me to do, but the monster had learned his lesson. His hand shot out and grabbed her by the neck as she tried to get away. He lifted her as she struggled, kicking and pummeling the air.

"Mom!

" !"

She caught my eyes, managed to choke out one last word: "Go!"

Then, with an angry roar, the monster closed his fists around my mother's neck, and she dissolved before my eyes, melting into light, a shimmering golden form, as if she were a holographic projection. A blinding flash, and she was simply ... gone.

"No!"

Anger replaced my fear. Newfound strength burned in my limbs-the same rush of energy I'd gotten when Mrs. Dodds grew talons.

The bull-man bore down on Grover, who lay helpless in the grass. The monster hunched over, snuffling my best friend, as if he were about to lift Grover up and make him dissolve too.

I heard a loud whistle, turning to where I heard it was Hinata a few feet away from where I was. She was besides me a minute ago, how did she?

"Hey big and ugly! You want me?..." She holds her knife close to her "Then come and get me!"

The bull man took her bait and charged.

She didn't move to sidestep, no she did made my heart stop.

She charged at him too

I knew she was brave and would anything to keep us safe. This however was too much

"Hinata!" I shouted

When she was close enough, Hinata used the rain to her advantage. Before his horns could touch her, she let herself fall to the grass and used the mud to slide between his legs, cutting them on her way through.

The bull man roar in pain, his legs were bleeding hard and buckled a little from the pain. But it wasn't enough to stop him.

Before Hinata could get up, he grabbed her like he did my mother and started to squeeze her.

"Please, stop! No!" I cried out, closing my eyes tightly

A painful cry came from the bull man

I looked up and saw Hinata had stabbed his large hand, hard with her knife. He couldn't stand the pain of knife in his hand, the bull man threw Hinata and since she had a tight grip on the knife, it came out.

I ran to where she landed, it was only a feet away from where I was. She was holding her left arm, coughing violently, trying to get air into her lungs.

"Are you crazy?! Why would you..." I touched her left arm gently

"Aaaaahhh" She cried in pain

I quickly stopped touching her "Your arm..."

"He threw me pretty hard, cracking the humerus bone in my arm ." She was panting heavily "It hurts to move this arm. But it's ok, I can still fight. Go get Grover and get to the farmhouse"

She still going to fight in the condition she's in? Just to protect us? And all by herself?! "I'm not going"

"Percy, don't-"

"I'm. Not. Going!" I said strongly "Not without you..."

The bull man was holding his injured hand tightly, he seemed to be glaring at her. He looked ready for round two with her.

I couldn't allow that.

I stripped off my red rain jacket and ran a good distance from her, using myself as bait

"Hey!" I screamed, waving the jacket, running to one side of the monster. "Hey, stupid! Ground beef!"

"Raaaarrrrr!" The monster turned toward me, shaking his injured meaty fists.

I had an idea, a stupid idea, but better than no idea at all. I put my back to the big pine tree and waved my red jacket in front of the bull-man, thinking I'd jump out of the way at the last moment.

But it didn't happen like that.

The bull-man charged too fast, his arms out to grab me whichever way I tried to dodge

Time slowed down.

My legs tensed. I couldn't jump sideways, so I leaped straight up, kicking off from the creature's head, using it as a springboard, turning in midair, and landing on his neck.

How did I do that? I didn't have time to figure it out. A millisecond later, the monster's head slammed into the tree and the impact nearly knocked my teeth out.

The bull-man staggered around, trying to shake me. I locked my arms around his horns to keep from being thrown. Thunder and lightning were still going strong. The rain was in my eyes. The smell of rotten meat burned my nostrils.

The monster shook himself around and bucked like a rodeo bull. He should have just backed up into the tree and smashed me flat, but I was starting to realize that this thing had only one gear: forward.

Meanwhile, Grover started groaning in the grass. Hinata was next to him, trying to quiet him down. It only him groan louder. I wanted to yell at him to shut up, but the way I was getting tossed around, if I opened my mouth I'd bite my own tongue off.

"Food!" Grover moaned.

"Shut up, Grover!" She said

The bull-man wheeled toward them, pawed the ground again, and got ready to charge. I thought about how he had squeezed the life out of my mother, made her disappear in a flash of light, and rage filled me like high-octane fuel. I got both hands around one horn and I pulled backward with all my might. The monster tensed, gave a surprised grunt, then-snap!

The bull-man screamed and flung me through the air. I landed flat on my back in the grass. My head smacked against a rock. When I sat up, my vision was blurry, but I had a horn in my hands, a ragged bone weapon the size of a knife

The monster charged.

"Percy!" Hinata cried

Without thinking, I rolled to one side and came up kneeling. As the monster barreled past, I drove the broken horn straight into his side, right up under his furry rib cage.

The bull-man roared in agony. He flailed, clawing at his chest, then began to disintegrate-not like my mother, in a flash of golden light, but like crumbling sand, blown away in chunks by the wind, the same way Mrs. Dodds had burst apart.

The monster was gone.

The rain had stopped. The storm still rumbled, but only in the distance. I smelled like livestock and my knees were shaking. My head felt like it was splitting open. I was weak and scared and trembling with grief I'd just seen my mother vanish. I wanted to lie down and cry, but there was Grover and Hinata, needing my help, so I managed to haul him up with her help and stagger down into the valley, toward the lights of the farmhouse. I was crying, calling for my mother, but I held on to Grover and kept close eye on Hinata, I wasn't going to let them go.

Halfway towards farm-house, Hinata collapsed onto her knees, losing her hold on Grover causing all of us to tip over.

"Hinata...!"

"I...I'm ok" She said forcing a smile

She wasn't ok, she was pale, still gripping her arm. She looked ready to collapse from the pain and fatigue she felt.

I laid Grover on the grass and with little strength I had left, I lifted her up and put her on my back, piggyback style. By the time I haul up Grover again, she was out like a light. I kept going, holding them tight.

The last thing I remember is collapsing on a wooden porch, looking up at a ceiling fan circling above me, moths flying around a yellow light, and the stern faces of a familiar-looking bearded man and a pretty girl, her blond hair curled like a princess's. They both looked down at me, then at Hinata, and the girl said, "They're the ones. They have to be."

"Silence, Annabeth," the man said. "He's still conscious. Bring them inside."


	6. I Play Pinochle with a Horse

I had weird dreams full of barnyard animals. Most of them wanted to kill me. The rest wanted food.

I must've woken up several times, but what I heard and saw made no sense, so I just passed out again. I remember lying in a soft bed, being spoon-fed something that tasted like buttered popcorn, only it was pudding. The girl with curly blond hair hovered over me, smirking as she scraped drips off my chin with the spoon.

When she saw my eyes open, she asked, "What will happen at the summer solstice?"

I managed to croak, "What?"

She looked around, as if afraid someone would over-hear. "What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sorry," I mumbled, "I don't...Where is..."

Somebody knocked on the door, and the girl quickly filled my mouth with pudding.

The next time I woke up, the girl was gone.

A husky blond dude, like a surfer, stood in the corner of the bedroom keeping watch over me. He had blue eyes- at least a dozen of them-on his cheeks, his forehead, the backs of his hands.

When I finally came around for good, there was nothing weird about my surroundings, except that they were nicer than I was used to. I was sitting in a deck chair on a huge porch, gazing across a meadow at green hills in the distance. The breeze smelled like strawberries. There was a blanket over my legs, a pillow behind my neck. All that was great, but my mouth felt like a scorpion had been using it for a nest. My tongue was dry and nasty and every one of my teeth hurt.

On the table next to me was a tall drink. It looked like iced apple juice, with a green straw and a paper parasol stuck through a maraschino cherry.

My hand was so weak I almost dropped the glass once I got my fingers around it.

"Careful," a familiar voice said.

Grover was leaning against the porch railing, looking like he hadn't slept in a week. Under one arm, he cradled a shoe box. He was wearing blue jeans, Converse hi-tops and a bright orange T-shirt that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD. Just plain old Grover, Not the goat boy.

So maybe I'd had a nightmare. Maybe my mom was okay. We were still on vacation, and we'd stopped here at this big house for some reason. And ...

"You saved my life," Grover said. "I... well, the least I could do ... I went back to the hill. I thought you might want this."

Reverently, he placed the shoe box in my lap.

Inside was a black-and-white bull's horn, the base jagged from being broken off, the tip splattered with dried blood. It hadn't been a nightmare.

"The Minotaur," I said.

"Urn, Percy, it isn't a good idea-"

"That's what they call him in the Greek myths, isn't it?" I demanded. "The Minotaur. Half man, half bull."

Grover shifted uncomfortably. "You've been out for two days. How much do you remember?"

"My mom. Is she really ..."

He looked down.

"Where's Hinata?"

"I'm right here" Another familiar voice said

I turned my head to see Hinata leaning against the doorframe, smiling at me weakly. Her legs were shaking every few moments, it was clear that she was just as tired as I was. At least her arm had healed, she wasn't gripping it anymore.

"Thank you for what you did for me, Perce" She said "...And about your mom, I...I wish I could have..."

"I know..."

I stared across the meadow. There were groves of trees, a winding stream, acres of strawberries spread out under the blue sky. The valley was surrounded by rolling hills, and the tallest one, directly in front of us, was the one with the huge pine tree on top. Even that looked beautiful in the sunlight.

My mother was gone. The whole world should be black and cold. Nothing should look beautiful.

"I'm sorry," Grover sniffled. "I'm a failure. I'm-I'm the worst satyr in the world."

He moaned, stomping his foot so hard it came off. I mean, the Converse hi-top came off. The inside was filled with Styrofoam, except for a hoof-shaped hole.

"Oh, Styx!" he mumbled.

Thunder rolled across the clear sky.

As he struggled to get his hoof back in the fake foot, I thought, Well, that settles it.

Grover was a satyr. I was ready to bet that if I shaved his curly brown hair, I'd find tiny horns on his head. But I was too miserable to care that satyrs existed, or even minotaurs. All that meant was my mom really had been squeezed into nothingness, dissolved into yellow light.

Hinata came up to me and laid her hands on my shoulders, trying to comfort me. I really appreciated the gesture, since we became friends, she done things like this to try and make me feel better and it always works. But not this time.

I was alone. An orphan. I would have to live with ... Smelly Gabe? No. That would never happen. I would live on the streets first. I would pretend I was seventeen and join the army. I'd do something

Grover was still sniffling. The poor kid-poor goat, satyr, whatever-looked as if he expected to be hit.

I said, "It wasn't your fault."

"Yes, it was. I was supposed to protect you guys."

"Did my mother ask you to protect me?"

"And my parents?" Hinata added

"No. But that's my job. I'm a keeper. At least... I was."

"But why ..." I suddenly felt dizzy, my vision swimming.

"Don't strain yourself," Grover said. "Here."

He helped me hold my glass and put the straw to my lips.

I recoiled at the taste, because I was expecting apple juice. It wasn't that at all. It was chocolate-chip cookies. Liquid cookies. And not just any cookies-my mom's homemade blue chocolate-chip cookies, buttery and hot, with the chips still melting. Drinking it, my whole body felt warm and good, full of energy. My grief didn't go away, but I felt as if my mom had just brushed her hand against my cheek, given me a cookie the way she used to when I was small, and told me everything was going to be okay.

Before I knew it, I'd drained the glass. I stared into it, sure I'd just had a warm drink, but the ice cubes hadn't even melted.

"Was it good?" Grover asked.

I nodded.

"What did it taste like?" He sounded so wistful, I felt guilty.

"Sorry," I said. "I should've let you taste."

His eyes got wide. "No! That's not what I meant. I just... wondered."

"Chocolate-chip cookies," I said. "My mom's. Home-made."

He sighed. "And how do you feel?"

"Like I could throw Nancy Bobofit a hundred yards."

"That's how I felt too after drinking my cup" Hinata said

"You had some too?"

"Yeah, when I woke up"

"Did it taste like my mom's cookies?"

"No..." She said thinking "It seems whatever that drink was, the flavor of it depends on the individual that drinks it"

"You're right about that, Hinata" Grover said impressed

"So then...what did yours taste like?" I asked her

A sad smile came to her face as she stared at the meadow, as if she was looking back at a memory "My grandfather's special green tea...whenever I drank that, I feel like I could do anything"

"That's good," he said. "That's good. I don't think you guys could risk drinking any more of that stuff"

Both of us look back at him

"What do you mean?" I asked

He took the empty glass from me gingerly, as if it were dynamite, and set it back on the table. "Come on. Chiron and Mr. D are waiting."

"Who?" Hinata asked

"You'll see"

The porch wrapped all the way around the farmhouse.

My legs felt wobbly, trying to walk that far. Grover offered to carry the Minotaur horn, but I held on to it. I'd paid for that souvenir the hard way. I wasn't going to let it go. But Hinata held me steady despite the fact she was almost in the same state I was.

As we came around the opposite end of the house, I caught my breath.

"Oh my god..." Hinata said in awe

We must've been on the north shore of Long Island, because on this side of the house, the valley marched all the way up to the water, which glittered about a mile in the distance. Between here and there, I simply couldn't process everything I was seeing. The landscape was dotted with buildings that looked like ancient Greek architecture-an open-air pavilion, an amphitheater, a circular arena-except that they all looked brand new, their white marble columns sparkling in the sun. In a nearby sandpit, a dozen high school-age kids and satyrs played volleyball. Canoes glided across a small lake. Kids in bright orange T-shirts like Grover's were chasing each other around a cluster of cabins nestled in the woods. Some shot targets at an archery range. Others rode horses down a wooded trail, and, unless I was hallucinating, some of their horses had wings.

Down at the end of the porch, two men sat across from each other at a card table. The blond-haired girl who'd spoon fed me popcorn flavored pudding was leaning on the porch rail next to them.

The man facing me was small, but porky. He had a red nose, big watery eyes, and curly hair so black it was almost purple. He looked like those paintings of baby angels- what do you call them, hubbubs? No, cherubs. That's it. He looked like a cherub who'd turned middle-aged in a trailer park. He wore a tiger pattern Hawaiian shirt, and he would've fit right in at one of Gabe's poker parties, except I got the feeling this guy could've out gambled even my stepfather.

"That's Mr. D," Grover murmured to us. "He's the camp director. Be polite. The girl, that's Annabeth Chase. She's just a camper, but she's been here longer than just about anybody. And you already know Chiron... ."

He pointed at the guy whose back was to me.

First, I realized he was sitting in the wheelchair. Then I recognized the tweed jacket, the thinning brown hair, the scraggly beard. Hinata smiled brightly as she recognized him too

"Mr. Brunner!" We cried.

The Latin teacher turned and smiled at us. His eyes had that mischievous glint they sometimes got in class when he pulled a pop quiz and made all the multiple choice answers B. His smile got bigger when Hinata went up and gave him a hug. She really admires him.

"Hello my dear," he said hugging her back "It's good to see you too, Percy. Now we have enough players for pinochle."

He only had one chair to offer and I sat because Hinata said I still need more rest. To the right was Mr. D, who looked at us with bloodshot eyes and heaved a great sigh. "Oh, I suppose I must say it. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. There. Now, don't expect me to be glad to see you two."

Hinata raised an eyebrow "Is this how you welcome people who come here?" She asked, a bit of anger in her tone

Mr.D either didn't seem to notice or he didn't care "Pretty much"

"Well, Uh, thanks." I scooted a little farther away from him because, if there was one thing I had learned from living with Gabe, it was how to tell when an adult has been hitting the happy juice. If Mr. D was a stranger to alcohol, I was a satyr.

"Annabeth?" Mr. Brunner called to the blond girl.

She came forward and Mr. Brunner introduced us. "This young lady nursed you back to health, Percy. Annabeth, my dear, why don't you go check on Percy's and Hinata's bunk? We'll be putting them in cabin eleven for now."

Annabeth said, "Sure, Chiron."

She was probably our age, maybe a couple of inches taller, and a whole lot more athletic looking. With her deep tan and her curly blond hair, she was almost exactly what I thought a stereotypical California girl would look like, except her eyes ruined the image. They were startling gray, like storm clouds; pretty, but intimidating, too, as if she were analyzing the best way to take me down in a fight. She glance at Hinata and they had a staring contest.

After a minute, Hinata asked "You need something, Annabeth?"

She ignored her question and glanced at the minotaur horn in my hands, then back at me and at her. I imagined she was going to say, You killed a minotaur! or Wow, you two are so awesome! or something like that.

Instead she said to me, "You drool when you sleep."

Then she sprinted off down the lawn, her blond hair flying behind her.

"I don't drool in my sleep, do I?" I asked looking at Hinata

She was trying her best not to giggle "Would you like me to lie and say you don't?"

"So," I said, anxious to change the subject. "You, uh, work here, Mr. Brunner?"

"Not Mr. Brunner," the ex-Mr. Brunner said. "I'm afraid that was a pseudonym. You may call me Chiron."

"Okay." Totally confused, I looked at the director. "And Mr. D ... does that stand for something?"

Mr. D stopped shuffling the cards. He looked at me like I'd just belched loudly. "Young man, names are powerful things. You don't just go around using them for no reason."

"Oh. Right. Sorry."

"I must say," Chiron-Brunner broke in, "I'm glad to see you both alive. It's been a long time since I've made a house call to a potential camper. I'd hate to think I've wasted my time."

"House call?" We asked

"My year at Yancy Academy, to instruct you two. We have satyrs at most schools, of course, keeping a lookout. But Grover alerted me as soon as he met you both. He sensed you two were something special, so I decided to come upstate. I convinced the other Latin teacher to ... ah, take a leave of absence."

I tried to remember the beginning of the school year. It seemed like so long ago, but I did have a fuzzy memory of there being another Latin teacher my first week at Yancy. Then, without explanation, he had disappeared and Mr. Brunner had taken the class.

"You came to Yancy just to teach us?" Hinata asked.

Chiron nodded. "Honestly, I wasn't sure about you two at first. We contacted your parents, let them know we were keeping an eye on you two in case you were ready for Camp Half-Blood. But you both still had so much to learn. Nevertheless, you made it here alive, and that's always the first test."

"Mr. Brun-I mean Chiron, I don't...I don't want to be here" Hinata said looking at her feet

She had that look on her face when my mom or Grover were talking about her parents...her real parents. Chiron looked up at her with a gentle and understanding expression.

"I have my reasons for staying..." She glances at me then back at him "But I..."

He takes her hand in his and pats it with his other hand in a comforting way "Grover has told me"

"Oh, he has, has he?" She gave Grover a quick look and he jumped, then tried to make himself invisible

"Yes he did..." Chiron said softly "And later on in your stay here, you'll understand why you're meant to be here"

"Grover," Mr. D said impatiently, "are you playing or not?"

"Yes, sir!" Grover trembled as he took the fourth chair, though I didn't know why he should be so afraid of a pudgy little man in a tiger-print Hawaiian shirt.

"You do know how to play pinochle?" Mr. D eyed her suspiciously.

"Sorry but no I don't" She said

He looked at me next "How about you?"

"I'm afraid not," I said.

"I'm afraid not, sir," he said.

"Sir," I repeated. I was liking the camp director less and less.

"Well," he told us, "it is, along with gladiator fighting and Pac-Man, one of the greatest games ever invented by humans. I would expect all civilized young men to know the rules."

"I'm sure they can learn," Chiron said.

"Please," I said, "what is this place? What are doing here? Mr. Brun-Chiron-why would you go to Yancy Academy just to teach us?"

Mr. D snorted. "I asked the same question."

Hinata glared at him, she wasn't liking this guy either

The camp director dealt the cards. Grover flinched every time one landed in his pile.

Chiron smiled at us sympathetically, the way he used to in Latin class, as if to let us know that no matter what my average was, We were his star students. He expected us to have the right answer. Hinata alway did, but not me.

"Hinata" He looks up at her "Have your parents told you anything?"

"No, they've never talk to me about this" She answered

"I see...Percy," he said. "Did your mother tell you nothing?'

"She said ..." I remembered her sad eyes, looking out over the sea. "She told me she was afraid to send me here, even though my father had wanted her to. She said that once I was here, I probably couldn't leave. She wanted to keep me close to her."

"She said that's how my parents felt as well" Hinata added

"Typical," Mr. D said. "That's how they usually get killed. Young man, are you bidding or not?"

"What?" I asked.

He explained, impatiently, how you bid in pinochle, and so I did.

"I'm afraid there's too much to tell," Chiron said. "I'm afraid our usual orientation film won't be sufficient."

"Orientation film?" I asked.

"No," Chiron decided. "Well, Percy, Hinata. You both know your friend Grover is a satyr. You know"-he pointed to the horn in the shoe box-"that you have killed the Minotaur. No small feat, either. What you may not know is that great powers are at work in your life. Gods-the forces you call the Greek gods are very much alive."

I stared at the others around the table.

I waited for somebody to yell, Not! But all I got was Mr. D yelling, "Oh, a royal marriage. Trick! Trick!" He cackled as he tallied up his points.

"Mr. D," Grover asked timidly, "if you're not going to eat it, could I have your Diet Coke can?"

"Eh? Oh, all right."

Grover bit a huge shard out of the empty aluminum can and chewed it mournfully.

"Wait," I told Chiron. "You're telling me there's such a thing as God."

"As in 'God' God?" Hinata asked

"Well, now," Chiron said. "God-capital G, God. That's a different matter altogether. We shan't deal with the metaphysical."

"Metaphysical? But you were just talking about-"

"Ah, gods, plural, as in, great beings that control the forces of nature and human endeavors: the immortal gods of Olympus. That's a smaller matter."

"Smaller?" Hinata and I voiced

"Yes, quite. The gods we discussed in Latin class."

"Zeus," I said. "Hera. Apollo. You mean them."

And there it was again distant thunder on a cloud-less day.

"Young man," said Mr. D, "I would really be less casual about throwing those names around, if I were you."

Hinata was trying as hard as I was to wrap her head around this "So, you're telling us that The Greek Gods of Olympus actually realized?"

"That is correct, my dear" Chiron said

"But they're stories," I said. "They're myths, to explain lightning and the seasons and stuff. They're what people believed before there was science."

"So true" she agreed

"Science!" Mr. D scoffed. "And tell me, Perseus Jackson and Hinata Hyuga"-I flinched when he said my real name, which I never told anybody-"what will people think of your 'science' two thousand years from now?" Mr. D continued. "Hmm? They will call it primitive mumbo jumbo. That's what. Oh, I love mortals they have absolutely no sense of perspective. They think they've come so-o-o far. And have they, Chiron? Look at these two and tell me."

I wasn't liking Mr. D much, but there was something about the way he called me mortal, as if... he wasn't. It was enough to put a lump in my throat, to suggest why Grover was dutifully minding his cards, chewing his soda can, and keeping his mouth shut.

Hinata lowers her head and whispers to me "This guy talks like it's not mortal, why is that?"

I shrugged, not knowing but I did want to know

"Kids," Chiron said, "you may choose to believe or not, but the fact is that immortal means immortal. Can you imagine that for a moment, never dying? Never fading? Existing, just as you are, for all time?"

I was about to answer, off the top of my head, that it sounded like a pretty good deal, but the tone of Chiron's voice made me hesitate. Hinata jumped in and saved me

"You mean, whether people believed in you or not," She said.

"Exactly," Chiron agreed. "If you were a god, how would you like being called a myth, an old story to explain lightning? What if I told you, Perseus Jackson, that someday people would call you a myth, just created to explain how little boys can get over losing their mothers?"

"Chiron!" Hinata cried shocked at what he said

My heart pounded. He was trying to make me angry for some reason, but I wasn't going to let him. I said, "I wouldn't like it. But I don't believe in gods."

"Neither do I, it's nothing but myths." She said folding her arms in front of her "You don't honestly expect us to believe in the Greek Gods or that they actually exist, do you?"

"Oh, we do and you'd better," Mr. D murmured. "Before one of them incinerates you both."

Grover said, "P-please, sir. They've both been through so much. Percy's just lost his mother. They're are in shock."

"A lucky thing, too," Mr. D grumbled, playing a card. "Bad enough I'm confined to this miserable job, working with kids who don't even believe.'"

He waved his hand and a goblet appeared on the table, as if the sunlight had bent, momentarily, and woven the air into glass. The goblet filled itself with red wine.

My jaw dropped, Hinata's eye bugged out but Chiron hardly looked up.

"Mr. D," he warned, "your restrictions."

Mr. D looked at the wine and feigned surprise.

"Dear me." He looked at the sky and yelled, "Old habits! Sorry!"

More thunder.

Mr. D waved his hand again, and the wineglass changed into a fresh can of Diet Coke. He sighed unhappily, popped the top of the soda, and went back to his card game.

Chiron winked at me. "Mr. D offended his father a while back, took a fancy to a wood nymph who had been declared off-limits."

"A wood nymph?" Hinata asked still in shock over the Diet Coke

"A wood nymph," I repeated, still staring at the Diet Coke can like it was from outer space.

"Yes," Mr. D confessed. "Father loves to punish me. The first time, Prohibition. Ghastly! Absolutely horrid ten years! The second time-well, she really was pretty, and I couldn't stay away-the second time, he sent me here. Half-Blood Hill. Summer camp for brats like you. 'Be a better influence,' he told me. 'Work with youths rather than tear-ing them down.' Ha.' Absolutely unfair."

Mr. D sounded about six years old, like a pouting little kid. "And ..." I stammered, "your father is ..."

"Di immortales, Chiron," Mr. D said. "I thought you taught this boy the basics. My father is Zeus, of course."

I ran through D names from Greek mythology. Wine. The skin of a tiger. The satyrs that all seemed to work here. The way Grover cringed, as if Mr. D were his master.

"You're Dionysus," I said.

"You're the God of wine" Hinata added

Mr. D rolled his eyes. "What do they say, these days, Grover? Do the children say, 'Well, duh!'?"

"Y-yes, Mr. D."

"Then, well, duh! Percy Jackson, Hinata Hyuga. Did you think I was Aphrodite, perhaps?"

"You're a god."

"Yes, child."

"A god. You."

Hinata snorts "I find that hard to believe"

He turned to look at us straight on, and I saw a kind of purplish fire in his eyes, a hint that this whiny, plump little man was only showing me the tiniest bit of his true nature. I saw visions of grape vines choking unbelievers to death, drunken warriors insane with battle lust, sailors screaming as their hands turned to flippers, their faces elon-gating into dolphin snouts. I knew that if we pushed him, Mr. D would show us worse things. He would plant a disease in my brain that would leave me wearing a strait-jacket in a rubber room for the rest of my life.

"Would you like to test me, children?" he said quietly.

"No. No, sir."

"I'd like to" Hinata said looking at him dead on

Grover choked on his can while I looked at her as if she lost her mind "Did you not see what I saw?"

"I did see..." She said, not taking her eyes off him "...but I'm not one that scares easy, given my background"

"Hmm, you're a pretty brave girl" The fire in his eyes increased a bit "But do know your bravery can also be your down fall"

"I know my limits"

The fire died a little. He turned back to his card game. "I believe I win."

"Not quite, Mr. D," Chiron said. He set down a straight, tallied the points, and said, "The game goes to me."

I thought Mr. D was going to vaporize Chiron right out of his wheelchair, but he just sighed through his nose, as if he were used to being beaten by the Latin teacher. He got up, and Grover rose, too.

"I'm tired," Mr. D said. "I believe I'll take a nap before the sing-along tonight. But first, Grover, we need to talk, again, about your less-than-perfect performance on this assignment."

Grover's face beaded with sweat. "Y-yes, sir."

Mr. D turned to us. "Cabin eleven, Percy Jackson and Hinata Hyuga. And mind your manners."

He swept into the farmhouse, Grover following miserably.

"Will Grover be okay?" I asked Chiron.

Chiron nodded, though he looked a bit troubled. "Old Dionysus isn't really mad. He just hates his job. He's been ... ah, grounded, I guess you would say, and he can't stand waiting another century before he's allowed to go back to Olympus."

"Mount Olympus," I said. "You're telling us there really is a palace there?"

"Well now, there's Mount Olympus in Greece. And then there's the home of the gods, the convergence point of their powers, which did indeed used to be on Mount Olympus. It's still called Mount Olympus, out of respect to the old ways, but the palace moves, Percy, just as the gods do."

"You mean the Greek gods are here? Like ... in America?"

"Well, certainly. The gods move with the heart of the West."

"The what?"

"That means the western civilization, Perce" Hinata answered

"Exactly and do you think it's just an abstract concept? No, it's a living force. A collective consciousness that has burned bright for thousands of years. The gods are part of it. You might even say they are the source of it, or at least, they are tied so tightly to it that they couldn't possibly fade, not unless all of Western civilization were obliterated. The fire started in Greece. Then, as you well know or as I hope you know, since you passed my course the heart of the fire moved to Rome, and so did the gods. Oh, different names, perhaps-Jupiter for Zeus, Venus for Aphrodite, and so on but the same forces, the same gods."

"And then they died."

"Died? No. Did the West die? The gods simply moved, to Germany, to France, to Spain, for a while. Wherever the flame was brightest, the gods were there. They spent several centuries in England. All you need to do is look at the archi-tecture. People do not forget the gods. Every place they've ruled, for the last three thousand years, you can see them in paintings, in statues, on the most important buildings. And yes, Percy, of course they are now in your United States. Look at your symbol, the eagle of Zeus. Look at the statue of Prometheus in Rockefeller Center, the Greek facades of your government buildings in Washington. I defy you to find any American city where the Olympians are not promi-nently displayed in multiple places. Like it or not and believe me, plenty of people weren't very fond of Rome, either- America is now the heart of the flame. It is the great power of the West. And so Olympus is here. And we are here."

It was all too much, especially the fact that I seemed to be included in Chiron's we, as if Hinata and I were part of some club.

"Who are you, Chiron? Who ... who am I?"

Chiron smiled. He shifted his weight as if he were going to get up out of his wheelchair, but I knew that was impossible. He was paralyzed from the waist down.

"Who are you?" he mused. "Well, that's the question we all want answered, isn't it? But for now, we should get you two bunks in cabin eleven. There will be new friends to meet. And plenty of time for lessons tomorrow. Besides, there will be s'mores at the campfire tonight, and I simply adore chocolate."

"But Chiron, I..." Hinata started to speak

"My dear, please. I know you have some problems with this but it's very important that you cooperate. For now, let's enjoy a tour of the camp. I'm sure there are activities here you will love"

And then he did rise from his wheelchair. But there was something odd about the way he did it. His blanket fell away from his legs, but the legs didn't move. His waist kept getting longer, rising above his belt. At first, I thought he was wearing very long, white velvet underwear, but as he kept rising out of the chair, taller than any man, I realized that the velvet underwear wasn't underwear; it was the front of an animal, muscle and sinew under coarse white fur. And the wheelchair wasn't a chair. It was some kind of container, an enormous box on wheels, and it must've been magic, because there's no way it could've held all of him. A leg came out, long and knobby-kneed, with a huge polished hoof. Then another front leg, then hindquarters, and then the box was empty, nothing but a metal shell with a couple of fake human legs attached.

"Oh my god..." Hinata softly said in awe

I stared at the horse who had just sprung from the wheelchair: a huge white stallion. But where its neck should be was the upper body of our Latin teacher, smoothly grafted to the horse's trunk.

"What a relief," the centaur said. "I'd been cooped up in there so long, my fetlocks had fallen asleep. Now, come, Percy Jackson and Hinata Hyuga. Let's meet the other campers."


	7. I Become Supreme Lord of the Bathroom

**Heres another chapter for you guys! Please enjoy and review (Positively)!**

* * *

Once Hinata and I got over the fact that our Latin teacher was a horse, we had a nice tour and he allowed Hinata to ride on his back since he saw she was still walking funny. I was walking and being careful not to walk behind him. I'd done pooper-scooper patrol in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade a few times, and, I'm sorry, I did not trust Chiron's back end the way I trusted his front.

We passed the volleyball pit. Several of the campers nudged each other. One pointed to the minotaur horn I was carrying. Another said, "It's them."

Most of the campers were older than Hinata and I. Their satyr friends were bigger than Grover, all of them trotting around in orange CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirts, with nothing else to cover their bare shaggy hindquarters. I wasn't normally shy, but the way they stared at us made me uncomfortable. I felt like they were expecting us to do a flip or something. Hinata muttered something about them taking a picture of us, so it would last longer.

I looked back at the farmhouse. It was a lot bigger than I'd realized four stories tall, sky blue with white trim, like an upscale seaside resort. I was checking out the brass eagle weather vane on top when something caught my eye, a shadow in the uppermost window of the attic gable. Something had moved the curtain, just for a second, and I got the distinct impression I was being watched.

"What's up there?" I asked Chiron.

He looked where I was pointing, and his smile faded. "Just the attic."

"Somebody lives there?"

"No," he said with finality. "Not a single living thing."

Hinata looked at the attic and flinched, she must have seen it too "Are you sure about that? I'm pretty sure I saw something move"

"Yes, my dear" He said "There is not a single living thing up there"

I'm pretty sure Hinata and I got the feeling he was being truthful. But I was also sure something had moved that curtain.

"Come along, Percy," Chiron said, his lighthearted tone now a little forced as he nudged me a little. "Lots to see."

We walked through the strawberry fields, where campers were picking bushels of berries while a satyr played a tune on a reed pipe.

Chiron told us the camp grew a nice crop for export to New York restaurants and Mount Olympus. "It pays our expenses," he explained. "And the strawberries take almost no effort."

He said Mr. D had this effect on fruit-bearing plants: they just went crazy when he was around. It worked best with wine grapes, but Mr. D was restricted from growing those, so they grew strawberries instead.

I watched the satyr playing his pipe. His music was causing lines of bugs to leave the strawberry patch in every direction, like refugees fleeing a fire. I wondered if Grover could work that kind of magic with music. I wondered if he was still inside the farmhouse, getting chewed out by Mr. D.

"Grover won't get in too much trouble, will he?" I asked Chiron. "I mean ... he was a good protector. Really."

"Yeah, Percy and I promised to wait for him but we were scared and left him behind" Hinata explained

Chiron sighed. He shed his tweed jacket and draped it over his horses back like a saddle. "Percy, Hinata, Grover has big dreams,. Perhaps bigger than are reasonable. To reach his goal, he must first demonstrate great courage by succeeding as a keeper, finding a new camper and bringing him safely to Half-Blood Hill."

"But he did that!" We voiced loudly

"I might agree with you both," Chiron said. "But it is not my place to judge. Dionysus and the Council of Cloven Elders must decide. I'm afraid they might not see this assignment as a success. After all, Grover lost you two in New York. Then there's the unfortunate ... ah ... fate of your mother, Percy. And the fact that Grover was unconscious when you two dragged him over the property line. The council might question whether this shows any courage on Grover's part.

I wanted to protest. None of what happened was Grover's fault. I also felt really, really guilty. If we hadn't given Grover the slip at the bus station, he might not have gotten in trouble.

Hinata just bowed her head with this guilty look on her face

"He'll get a second chance, won't he?" I asked, Hinata looked up at him with hope

Chiron winced. "I'm afraid that was Grover's second chance, you two. The council was not anxious to give him another, either, after what happened the first time, five years ago. Olympus knows, I advised him to wait longer before trying again. He's still so small for his age... ."

"How old is he?"

"Oh, twenty-eight."

Hinata was so shocked she would have fallen off of Chiron's back if he hadn't caught her

"What! And he's in sixth grade?"

"How many time did he get left back?!" Hinata asked

"Satyrs mature half as fast as humans, you two. Grover has been the equivalent of a middle school student for the past six years."

"That's horrible."

"Quite," Chiron agreed. "At any rate, Grover is a late bloomer, even by satyr standards, and not yet very accomplished at woodland magic. Alas, he was anxious to pursue his dream. Perhaps now he will find some other career... ."

"No way!" Hinata protested "From what I've seen, Grover wants nothing more than to succeed at this!"

"That's not fair," I said. "What happened the first time? Was it really so bad?"

Chiron looked away quickly. "Let's move along, shall we?"

But I wasn't quite ready to let the subject drop. Something had occurred to me when Chiron talked about my mother's fate, as if he were intentionally avoiding the word death. The beginnings of an idea-a tiny, hopeful fire-started forming in my mind.

"Chiron," I said. "If the gods and Olympus and all that are real ..."

"Yes, child?"

"Does that mean the Underworld is real, too?"

Chiron's expression darkened.

"Yes, child." He paused, as if choosing his words carefully. "There is a place where spirits go after death. But for now ... until we know more ... I would urge you to put that out of your mind."

"What do you mean, 'until we know more'?"

"Come, Percy. Let's see the woods."

Hinata looked down at me, it was one of her famous looks. This look said 'I know you're up to something'

As we got closer, I realized how huge the forest was. It took up at least a quarter of the valley, with trees so tall and thick, you could imagine nobody had been in there since the Native Americans.

Chiron said, "The woods are stocked, if you care to try your luck, but go armed."

"Stocked with what?" I asked. "Armed with what?"

"With what we've seen, the woods are probably stocked with traps and monsters and we need to be armed with armor and weapons" Hinata looked at Chiron to confirm her guess "Am I right?"

He gave her one of his playfully smiles, those told us when we were right but it was still a surprise "You'll see. Capture the flag is Friday night. Do you two have your own sword and shield?"

"Our own-?"

"No," Chiron said. "I don't suppose you do. I think a size five will do for you both. I'll visit the armory later."

I wanted to ask what kind of summer camp had an armory, but there was too much else to think about, so the tour continued. We saw the archery range, (which made Hinata tremble in excitement on Chiron's back, it's her favorite activity), the canoeing lake, the stables (which Chiron didn't seem to like very much), the javelin range, the sing-along amphitheater, and the arena where Chiron said they held sword and spear fights.

"Sword and spear fights?" I asked.

"Cabin challenges and all that," he explained. "Not lethal. Usually."

"That doesn't make it sound any less dangerous" Hinata pointed out

"I tried my best to make it sound ok." Chiron said "Oh, yes, and there's the mess hall."

Chiron pointed to an outdoor pavilion fr

* * *

amed in white Grecian columns on a hill overlooking the sea. There were a dozen stone picnic tables. No roof. No walls.

"What do you do when it rains?" I asked.

Chiron looked at me as if I'd gone a little weird. "We still have to eat, don't we?" I decided to drop the subject when I heard Hinata snickering at Chiron's answer.

Finally, he showed us the cabins. There were thirteen of them, nestled in the woods by the lake. They were arranged in a U, with one at the base and six in a row on either side. And they were without doubt the most bizarre collection of buildings I'd ever seen.

Except for the fact that each had a large brass number above the door (odds on the left side, evens on the right and the one in the center was odd too), they looked absolutely nothing alike. Number nine had smokestacks, like a tiny factory. Number four had tomato vines on the walls and a roof made out of real grass. Seven seemed to be made of solid gold, which gleamed so much in the sunlight it was almost impossible to look at. They all faced a commons area about the size of a soccer field, dotted with Greek statues, fountains, flower beds, and a couple of basketball hoops (which were more my speed).

In the center of the field was a huge stone-lined firepit. Even though it was a warm afternoon, the hearth smoldered. A girl about nine years old was tending the flames, poking the coals with a stick.

The pair of cabins at the head of the field, numbers one and two, looked like his-and-hers mausoleums, big white marble boxes with heavy columns in front. Cabin one was the biggest and bulkiest of the thirteen. Its polished bronze doors shimmered like a hologram, so that from different angles lightning bolts seemed to streak across them. Cabin two was more graceful somehow, with slimmer columns garlanded with pomegranates and flowers. The walls were carved with images of peacocks.

"Zeus and Hera?" I guessed.

"Correct," Chiron said.

"Their cabins look empty."

"Several of the cabins are. That's true. No one ever stays in one or two."

Okay. So each cabin had a different god, like a mascot. Thirteen cabins? But there are twelve Olympians. Why would there be thirteen? And why would some be empty?

I was about to ask when Hinata beat me to it "Chiron, in class, you taught us about the many different gods, but I'm assuming that each of the cabins in camp represent one of the twelve major gods, right?"

"Your assumption is right on the target, my dear." Chiron said

"But if that's true..." Her eyes landed on the cabin in the center, it was plain white, no engravings, no color, just simple and boring "...Then why is there a thirteenth cabin?"

Chiron looked at the cabin for a minute before speaking "This camp has been around for a very, very, very long time. And during a point in time, the relationships between some of the gods were...progressing very...nicely." He looked uncomfortable saying that "Anyway, at that time the gods had the idea of building a cabin for those kind of children. However, throughout the years, some of those children thought they wouldn't need this camp or they were more superior than the others here. Overall none of them came but we still keep this cabin here hoping that one day children such as that will come."

I looked at the thirteenth cabin. Those kind of children? I wonder what make them different from the others?

I stopped in front of the first cabin on the left, cabin three.

It wasn't high and mighty like cabin one, but long and low and solid. The outer walls were of rough gray stone studded with pieces of seashell and coral, as if the slabs had been hewn straight from the bottom of the ocean floor. I peeked inside the open doorway and Chiron said, "Oh, I wouldn't do that!"

Before he could pull me back, I caught the salty scent of the interior, like the wind on the shore at Montauk. The interior walls glowed like abalone. There were six empty bunk beds with silk sheets turned down. But there was no sign anyone had ever slept there. "Perce?" Hinata called me, her voice sound concerned. The place felt so sad and lonely, I was glad when Chiron put his hand on my shoulder and said, "Come along, Percy."

Most of the other cabins were crowded with campers.

Number five was bright red-a real nasty paint job, as if the color had been splashed on with buckets and fists. The roof was lined with barbed wire. A stuffed wild boar's head hung over the doorway, and its eyes seemed to follow me. Inside I could see a bunch of mean-looking kids, both girls and boys, arm wrestling and arguing with each other while rock music blared. The loudest was a girl maybe thirteen or fourteen. She wore a size XXXL CAMP HALF-BLOOD T-shirt under a camouflage jacket. She zeroed in on us and gave Hinata and I an evil sneer. She reminded me of Nancy Bobofit, though the camper girl was much bigger and tougher looking, and her hair was long and stringy, and brown instead of red.

"I have a feeling she's going to problem in the future" Hinata said, completely unfazed at that girl's sneer

I agreed while trying to stay clear of Chiron's hooves. "We haven't seen any other centaurs," I observed.

"That's true" Hinata looked around the area "Aren't there any other centaurs here?"

"No," said Chiron sadly. "My kinsmen are a wild and barbaric folk, I'm afraid. You might encounter them in the wilderness, or at major sporting events. But you two won't see any here."

"You said your name was Chiron. Are you really ..."

He smiled down at me. "The Chiron from the stories? Trainer of Hercules and all that? Yes, Percy, I am."

Hinata looked at me as if I was stupid "Seriously, Perce? I mean really, how many Chiron did we learn about? Because I only remember one and that's him" She said, pointing at the centaur she was riding on.

"I know but, shouldn't you be dead?" I asked him

Chiron paused, as if the question intrigued him. "I honestly don't know about should be. The truth is, I can't be dead. You see, eons ago the gods granted my wish. I could continue the work I loved. I could be a teacher of heroes as long as humanity needed me. I gained much from that wish ... and I gave up much. But I'm still here, so I can only assume I'm still needed."

"I knew you inspired me for a reason, Chiron!" Hinata smiled brightly, her eyes showed her admiration as she hugged him from behind "The dedication and passion you put into what you love! I really don't see that everyday"

Chiron chuckled heartily as he patted her on the head gently, looking at her as if she was family to him "Thank you, Hinata dear. I'm happy to know that what I do can truly touch the hearts of individuals"

I thought about being a teacher for three thousand years. It wouldn't have made my Top Ten Things to Wish For list.

"Doesn't it ever get boring?"

"No, no," he said. "Horribly depressing, at times, but never boring."

"Depressing?" Hinata asked as she stopped hugging him

"Why depressing?"

Chiron seemed to turn hard of hearing again. "Oh, look," he said. "Annabeth is waiting for us."

The blond girl we met at the Big House was reading a book in front of the last cabin on the left, number eleven.

When we reached her, she looked me over critically, like she was still thinking about how much I drooled. Then she looked over at Hinata, at first it looked like she was kind of jealous that Hinata got to ride on Chiron. Then her look turned to be a little nervous, it's like she was trying to figure her out but just couldn't.

I tried to see what she was reading, but I couldn't make out the title. I thought my dyslexia was acting up. Then I realized the title wasn't even English. The letters looked Greek to me. I mean, literally Greek. There were pictures of temples and statues and different kinds of columns, like those in an architecture book.

"Annabeth," Chiron said, "I have masters' archery class at noon. Would you take Percy and Hinata from here?"

"Yes, sir."

"Cabin eleven," Chiron told us as he helped Hinata down, gesturing toward the doorway. "Make yourselves at home."

Out of all the cabins, eleven looked the most like a regular old summer camp cabin, with the emphasis on old. The threshold was worn down, the brown paint peeling. Over the doorway was one of those doctor's symbols, a winged pole with two snakes wrapped around it. What did they call it... ? A caduceus.

Inside, it was packed with people, both boys and girls, way more than the number of bunk beds. Sleeping bags were spread all over on the floor. It looked like a gym where the Red Cross had set up an evacuation center.

Chiron didn't go in. The door was too low for him. But when the campers saw him they all stood and bowed respectfully.

"Well, then," Chiron said. "Good luck, Percy, Hinata. I'll see you at dinner." He galloped away toward the archery range.

We stood in the doorway, looking at the kids. They weren't bowing anymore. They were staring at us, sizing us up. I knew this routine. I'd gone through it at enough schools.

"Well?" Annabeth prompted. "Go on."

So naturally I tripped coming in the door and made a total fool of myself. There were some snickers from the campers, but none of them said anything. They stopped snickering when Hinata threw a glare their way while she kept me steady.

Annabeth announced, "Percy Jackson, Hinata Hyuga meet cabin eleven."

"Regular or undetermined?" somebody asked

I didn't know what to say, but Annabeth said, "Undetermined."

Everybody groaned.

A guy who was a little older than the rest came forward. "Now, now, campers. That's what we're here for. Welcome, Percy, Hinata. You two can have those spots on the floor, right over there."

The guy was about nineteen, and he looked pretty cool. He was tall and muscular, with short-cropped sandy hair and a friendly smile. He wore an orange tank top, cutoffs, sandals, and a leather necklace with five different-colored clay beads. The only thing unsettling about his appearance was a thick white scar that ran from just beneath his right eye to his jaw, like an old knife slash.

"This is Luke," Annabeth said, and her voice sounded different somehow. Hinata and I glanced over and could've sworn she was blushing. She saw us looking, and her expression hardened again. "He's your counselor for now."

"For now?" I asked.

"You two are undetermined," Luke explained patiently. "They don't know what cabin to put you guys in, so you're here. Cabin eleven takes all newcomers, all visitors. Naturally, we would. Hermes, our patron, is the god of travelers."

I looked at the tiny sections of floor they'd given us. I had nothing to put there to mark it as my own, no luggage, no clothes, no sleeping bag. Just the Minotaur's horn. I thought about setting that down, but then I remembered that Hermes was also the god of thieves.

I looked around at the campers' faces, some sullen and suspicious, some grinning stupidly, some eyeing us as if they were waiting for a chance to pick my pockets.

One of them tried to take Hinata's bronze kunai while she wasn't looking. It did not end well on his side. She twisted his arm behind his back, did a round kick causing him to land on his stomach and pinned him to the ground. Everyone was looking at her. Luke and Annabeth looked at her, shocked and impressed, half of the campers in the cabin looked at her in awe and the other half looked really scared. But she didn't notice the stares she was getting, her eyes were on the guy she was pinning

"So, you want to try taking it again?" She asked, her voice was calm, but I could feel the anger coming off of her.

"N-No ma'am, I-I'm so sorry!" He said shaking in fear and this guy was twice her size.

She looked up at the other campers "Anyone else want to try and pick my pockets?"

I learned, in the first few months of our friendship, never to mess with her stuff. Especially that kunai of hers. She alway kept it on her everywhere she went. It was her most prized possession and to this day I don't know why.

Some of them backed away and others were either too scared or too shocked to move but no one said anything. Luke was brave enough to come up to her "Wow, you're really something! I can see you've gave some skills, can't wait to test them out." He looked at his roommate being pinned "I know we're pickpockets and all but you should give the newbies a break"

"I will! I'm really, really sorry. Please let me go!" He begged and I could see why. She was bending his arm in a weird angle and it must really hurt.

She gave the guy one more warning before letting him go. He scrambled off the floor and hid in back of Luke. Luke chuckled at that, then took Hinata's hand in his "I'm really sorry about that, some of us here just can't help ourselves. I'll try to keep them in line, so forgive and forget?" He said giving a charming smile

Hinata raised her eyebrow and thought for a moment before sighing "Fine, I guess I can forgive this time"

My eyes, along with Annabeth's and Hinata's eyes, widen as Luke took her hand and laid his lips on it, giving a gentle kiss. He then raises his head and grins at her "Thank you"

I don't know why but I was annoyed with that. What was that all about?!

I glanced at Annabeth and saw her giving Hinata a hard look. Hinata glanced at me, giving me a face that said 'Is this guy for real?' Then looked back at him as if he was either weird or crazy.

The look she was giving him made me less annoyed. When a guy like Luke does something like that to a girl, they would just melt into a puddle of goo. But Hinata was different, a good looking face and a charming smile wouldn't win her over. No way, it's what she see in the person that matters to her. It's another reason why I think she's amazing.

I notice the tension in the cabin and it was pretty thick, so I hope saying something would break in

"How long will we be here?" I asked.

"Good question," Luke said, letting go of Hinata's hand. "Until you both are determined."

"How long will that take?"

The campers all laughed. I was confused about why they were laughing but at least the tension is gone.

Hinata looked just as confused as I was "You guys want to let us in on the joke?"

"Come on," Annabeth told us "I'll show you two the volleyball court."

"We've already seen it." I said

"Come on." She grabbed each of our wrists and dragged us outside. I could hear the kids of cabin eleven laughing behind me.

When we were a few feet away, Annabeth said, "Jackson, Hyuga you have to do better than that."

"What?"

She rolled her eyes and mumbled under her breath, "I can't believe I thought you were the one."

Hinata glared at her "You want to say that again?"

"What's your problem?" I was getting angry too. "All I know is, We fought and kill some bull guy-"

"Don't talk like that!" Annabeth told me. "Do you guys know how many kids at this camp wish they'd had your chance?"

"To get killed?"

"To fight the Minotaur! What do you think we train for?"

I shook my head. "Look, if the thing we fought really was the Minotaur, the same one in the stories ..."

"Yes."

"Then there's only one."

"Yes."

"And he died, like, a gajillion years ago, right? Theseus killed him in the labyrinth. So ..."

"Monsters don't die, Percy. They can be killed. But they don't die."

"Oh, thanks. That clears it up."

"That's not possible" Hinata said, folding her arms "Living things that are killed will die, it doesn't make sense for them to be killed and yet not die"

"Yeah, she's right."

"They don't have souls, like you and me. You can dispel them for a while, maybe even for a whole lifetime if you're lucky. But they are primal forces. Chiron calls them archetypes. Eventually, they reform."

"So that monster Percy killed-"

Annabeth nodded "Is still alive"

I thought about Mrs. Dodds. "You mean if I killed one, accidentally, with a sword-"

"The Fur ... I mean, your math teacher. That's right. She's still out there. You just made her very, very mad."

"How did you know about Mrs. Dodds?"

"You talk in your sleep."

"You do have a habit of doing that" Hinata added

"You almost called her something. A Fury? They're Hades' torturers, right?"

Annabeth glanced nervously at the ground, as if she expected it to open up and swallow her. "You shouldn't call them by name, even here. We call them the Kindly Ones, if we have to speak of them at all."

"Look, is there anything we can say without it thundering?" I sounded whiny, even to myself, but right then I didn't care. "Why do we have to stay in cabin eleven, anyway? Why is everybody so crowded together? There are plenty of empty bunks right over there."

"I have a pretty good idea on why..." Hinata muttered angrily "And I hate it"

Why is she so upset?

I went and pointed to the first few cabins, and Annabeth turned pale. "You don't just choose a cabin, Percy. It depends on who your parents are. Or ... your parent."

She stared at me, waiting for me to get it.

"My mom is Sally Jackson," I said. "She works at the candy store in Grand Central Station. At least, she used to."

"I'm sorry about your mom, Percy. But that's not what I mean. I'm talking about your other parent. Your dad."

"He's dead. I never knew him."

Annabeth sighed. Clearly, she'd had this conversation before with other kids. "Your father's not dead, Percy."

"How can you say that? You know him?"

"No, of course not." She said turning to Hinata "The same thing goes for you too. I know your real dad or mom isn't dead but I don't know them"

"For all I care, they can be" Hinata said coldly

"Wait, if you don't know our parents, then how can you say-"

"Because I know you two. You guys wouldn't be here if you weren't one of us."

"You don't know anything about me."

"The same goes for me"

"No?" She raised an eyebrow. "I bet you two moved around from school to school. I bet you two were kicked out of a lot of them."

"How-"

"Diagnosed with dyslexia. Probably ADHD, too."

Hinata stopped her "For the record, he's been kicked out, I just refuse to stay in a school without my best friend, so I transfer. Second, it's true we both have dyslexia and ADHD but I've learned to handle my dyslexia, I'm able to read at a level above my grade"

I blushed a little "Hinata, you are such a big mouth"

"And you are a troublemaker"

I tried to swallow my embarrassment. "Anyway, what does that have to do with anything?" I asked Annabeth

"Taken together, it's almost a sure sign. The letters float off the page when you read, right? That's because your mind is hardwired for ancient Greek. And the ADHD-you're impulsive, can't sit still in the classroom. That's your battlefield reflexes. In a real fight, they'd keep you alive. As for the attention problems, that's because you see too much, Percy, not too little. Your senses are better than a regular mortal's. Of course the teachers want you medicated. Most of them are monsters. They don't want you seeing them for what they are."

"You sound like you went through the same thing" Hinata said

"Most of the kids here did. If you two weren't like us, you two couldn't have survived the Minotaur, much less the ambrosia and nectar."

"Ambrosia and nectar." I repeated

"The food and drink we were giving you two to make you better. That stuff would've killed a normal kid. It would've turned your blood to fire and your bones to sand and you'd be dead. Face it. You guys are half- bloods."

A half-blood.

I was reeling with so many questions I didn't know where to start.

"Wait a minute..." Hinata said calmly, but I could tell this was upsetting her, since it's about her real parents "My family, the family I accept, are descendants of a ninja group that existed many years ago, I've been trained in their ways since I was 7. So of course my senses and reflexes would be far better than a normal person's would be. Besides the part about my dyslexia, the things you're telling me doesn't prove that I'm one of you."

"Well it your case, I guess that's true but-" Annabeth got cut off

"Well look what we have here! Newbies!" A husky voice yelled

Hinata looked in the direction of the voice and sighed " I knew she would try something eventually"

I looked over. The big girl from the ugly red cabin was sauntering toward us. She had three other girls behind her, all big and ugly and mean looking like her, all wearing camo jackets.

"Clarisse," Annabeth sighed. "Why don't you go polish your spear or something?"

"Sure, Miss Princess," the big girl said. "So I can run you through with it Friday night."

''Erre es korakas!" Annabeth said, which I somehow understood was Greek for 'Go to the crows!' though I had a feeling it was a worse curse than it sounded. "You don't stand a chance."

"We'll pulverize you," Clarisse said, but her eye twitched. Perhaps she wasn't sure she could follow through on the threat. She turned toward Hinata and me. "Who are these little runts?"

"Percy Jackson, Hinata Hyuga" Annabeth said, "meet Clarisse, Daughter of Ares."

I blinked. "Like ... the war god?"

Clarisse sneered. "You got a problem with that?"

"No," I said, recovering my wits. "It explains the bad smell."

"Yeah, you guys smell worse than a boy's locker room" Hinata said, covering her nose

Clarisse growled. "We got an initiation ceremony for newbies, Prissy and Hitoma."

"Percy."

"It's Hinata"

"Whatever. Come on, I'll show you."

"Clarisse-" Annabeth tried to say.

"Stay out of it, wise girl." She said then turned to two of her friends "Show the new girl her initiation, I'll be taking care of the new guy"

They grinned, one of them roughly grabbed onto Hinata's arm and dragged her away. I was about to go after them when Hinata looked at me and shook her head, mouthing 'I'll be fine'.

Clarisse turned back to me "Now it's your turn"

Annabeth looked pained, but she did stay out of it, and I didn't really want her help. I was the new kid. I had to earn my own rep.

I handed Annabeth my minotaur horn and got ready to fight, but before I knew it, Clarisse had me by the neck and was dragging me toward a cinder-block building that I knew immediately was the bathroom.

I was kicking and punching. I'd been in plenty of fights before, but this big girl Clarisse had hands like iron. She dragged me into the girls' bathroom. There was a line of toilets on one side and a line of shower stalls down the other. It smelled just like any public bathroom, and I was thinking as much as I could think with Clarisse ripping my hair out that if this place belonged to the gods, they should've been able to afford classier johns.

Clarisse friend was laughing, and I was trying to find the strength I'd used to fight the Minotaur, but it just wasn't there.

"Like he's 'Big Three' material," Clarisse said as she pushed me toward one of the toilets. "Yeah, right. Minotaur probably fell over laughing, he and that girl were so stupid looking"

Her friend snickered

Annabeth stood in the corner, watching through her fingers.

Clarisse bent me over on my knees and started pushing my head toward the toilet bowl. It reeked like rusted pipes and, well, like what goes into toilets. I strained to keep my head up. I was looking at the scummy water, thinking, I will not go into that. I won't.

Then something happened. I felt a tug in the pit of my stomach. I heard the plumbing rumble, the pipes shudder. Clarisse's grip on my hair loosened. Water shot out of the toilet, making an arc straight over my head, and the next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the bathroom tiles with Clarisse screaming behind me.

I turned just as water blasted out of the toilet again, hitting Clarisse straight in the face so hard it pushed her down onto her butt. The water stayed on her like the spray from a fire hose, pushing her backward into a shower stall.

She struggled, gasping, and her friend started coming toward her. But then the other toilets exploded, too, and six more streams of toilet water blasted them back. The showers acted up, too, and together all the fixtures sprayed the camouflage girls right out of the bathroom, spinning them around like pieces of garbage being washed away.

As soon as they were out the door, I felt the tug in my gut lessen, and the water shut off as quickly as it had started.

The entire bathroom was flooded. Annabeth hadn't been spared. She was dripping wet, but she hadn't been pushed out the door. She was standing in exactly the same place, staring at me in shock.

I looked down and realized I was sitting in the only dry spot in the whole room. There was a circle of dry floor around me. I didn't have one drop of water on my clothes. Nothing.

I stood up, my legs shaky. Annabeth said, "How did you ..."

"I don't know."

We walked to the door. Outside, Clarisse and her friend were sprawled in the mud, and a bunch of other campers had gathered around to gawk. Clarisse's hair was flattened across her face. Her camouflage jacket was sopping and she smelled like sewage. She gave me a look of absolute hatred. "You are dead, new boy. You are totally dead."

I probably should have let it go, but I said, "You want to gargle with toilet water again, Clarisse? Close your mouth."

Before she could say or do anything, a familiar voice spoke from behind her "So Perce, you want yo tell me why this area smells like a sewer?"

Clarisse looked behind her. Her look of absolute hatred turned into absolute shock as Hinata was standing a few inches behind her, with nothing but some dirt on her clothes "Y-You..."

"You may want to go and help your friends out of that hole they tried to throw me into" She said bored "Oh and call a nurse because I might have broke an arm of one of those apes"

Clarisse got out of her shock and gave her a heated glare"Don't get cocky and think you can insult us just because you got lucky! You two are nothing compared to us!"

Hinata bent to her level "This coming from the queen ape herself. If you want to act like you're high and mighty, try not to smell let you belong in a zoo...wait scratch that you already smelt like that before this"

Her friend had to hold her back and dragged her toward cabin five, while the other campers made way to avoid her flailing feet.

I turned to Hinata "You ok?"

She nodded, patting herself down, getting rid of the dirt on her clothes "Yeah, I'm fine. It's not hard to outsmart anyway"

Annabeth stared at us. I couldn't tell whether she was just grossed out or angry at me for dousing her or shocked to see Hinata back in one piece.

"What?" I demanded. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking," she said, "that I want you two on my team for capture the flag."


	8. My Dinner Goes Up in Smoke

7 MY DINNER GOES UP IN SMOKE

Word of the bathroom and hole incident spread immediately. Wherever Hinata and I went, campers pointed at us and murmured something about toilet water or Hinata being crazy strong for taking down two of Clarisse's friends. Or maybe they were just staring at Annabeth, who was still pretty much dripping wet.

She showed us a few more places: the metal shop (where kids were forging their own swords), the arts- and-crafts room (where satyrs were sandblasting a giant marble statue of a goat-man), and the climbing wall, which actually consisted of two facing walls that shook violently, dropped boulders, sprayed lava, and clashed together if you didn't get to the top fast enough.

Finally we returned to the canoeing lake, where the trail led back to the cabins.

"I've got training to do," Annabeth said flatly. "Dinner's at seven-thirty. Just follow your cabin to the mess hall."

"Annabeth, I'm sorry about the toilets."

"Whatever."

"It wasn't my fault."

"Perce, not to take sides here but based on what you told me, it is your fault." Hinata said

They looked at me skeptically, and I realized it was my fault. I'd made water shoot out of the bathroom fixtures. I didn't understand how. But the toilets had responded to me. I had become one with the plumbing.

"You two need to talk to the Oracle," Annabeth said.

"Who?"

"Not who. What. The Oracle. I'll ask Chiron."

Hinata looked irritated "Does everyone here not give clear answers?"

I agreed with her, staring into the lake, wishing somebody would give us a straight answer for once.

I wasn't expecting anybody to be looking back at me from the bottom, so my heart skipped a beat when I noticed two teenage girls sitting cross-legged at the base of the pier, about twenty feet below. They wore blue jeans and shim-mering green T-shirts, and their brown hair floated loose around their shoulders as minnows darted in and out. They smiled and waved as if I were a long-lost friend.

I didn't know what else to do. I waved back.

"Don't encourage them," Annabeth warned. "Naiads are terrible flirts."

Looking into the lake too, Hinata said "Naiads...you're telling me those two are real live water nymphs"

"They're the real deal"

"Naiads," I repeated, feeling completely overwhelmed. "That's it. I want to go home now."

"Really, Perce?" Hinata said, sounding like this conversation was exhausting "We've fought a Kindly One and a Minotaur, met a god, found out our Latin teacher is a centaur and got into a fight with those apes. And now you want to go home because you see water nymphs?"

I blushed, she did have a point. We've seen seen crazier things than this. Still, I tried to hide my embarrassment "Don't pretend like you don't want to go home too?"

She gave me a pointed look "Hello? Have you not been paying attention? I've wanted to get out of this place since we first got here"

Annabeth frowned at us. "Don't you two get it? You are home. This is the only safe place on earth for kids like us."

"You mean, mentally disturbed kids?"

"Speak for yourself, Perce"

"I mean not human. Not totally human, anyway. Half-human."

"Half-human and half-what?"

"I think you know."

I didn't want to admit it, but I was afraid I did. I felt a tingling in my limbs, a sensation I sometimes felt when my mom talked about my dad.

"God," I said. "Half-god."

Annabeth nodded. "Your father isn't dead, Percy. He's one of the Olympians."

"That's ... crazy."

"That's because it IS crazy! You expect us to believe that Percy's dad is one of the Olympian gods?" Hinata asked

Annabeth turned to her "Not just his dad, Hinata. Your birth mom or dad is one of the Olympians too"

She clutched her fists, an angry look came across her face "I could care less about those people, they didn't take care of me. They didn't want me around, so they are not my parents! And the most crazy thing here is that you believe they are gods? The very thought of it is insane!"

"Is it? What's the most common thing gods did in the old stories? They ran around falling in love with humans and having kids with them. Do you think they've changed their habits in the last few millennia?"

Hinata opened her mouth but nothing came out. She had this look, as if a moment of realization came to her.

"But those are just-" I almost said myths again. Then I remembered Chiron's warning that in two thousand years, I might be considered a myth. "But if all the kids here are half-gods-"

"Demigods," Annabeth said. "That's the official term. Or half-bloods."

"Then who's your dad?"

Her hands tightened around the pier railing. I got the feeling I'd just trespassed on a sensitive subject.

"My dad is a professor at West Point," she said. "I haven't seen him since I was very small. He teaches American history."

"He's human."

"What? You assume it has to be a male god who finds a human female attractive? How sexist is that?"

"Who's your mom, then?"

"Cabin six."

"Meaning?"

Annabeth straightened. "Athena. Goddess of wisdom and battle."

Okay, I thought. Why not?

"Well that explains the looks you've been giving us" Hinata said, leaning against the rails

"Care to explain what you mean by that" Annabeth said as if she was challenging her

Hinata glanced at her for a moment before turning her eyes back on the lake "Athena is known for her wisdom in battle, both in tactics and strategies. To be prepared for battle, you must first analyze the warrior or warriors in battle. Their numbers in battle, appearance, body type, weapons and etc, it's how you able to find your enemies weakness."Annabeth stood there, wide eye as if Hinata just caught her doing something she wasn't suppose to. "And you've been analyzing us since we came here, right?"

Annabeth didn't say anything for a while, I didn't know whether it was because she was embarrassed that she was found out by a newbie or she was speechless. Then she spoke "You might be her daughter too, you do have a sense of wisdom"

I felt Hinata's mood starting to change back to anger, so I decided to come back into the conservation "And my dad?"

"Undetermined," Annabeth said, "like I told you before. Nobody knows."

"Except my mother. She knew."

"Maybe not, Percy. Gods don't always reveal their identities."

"That's a good thing, then. They don't want to be known and I don't want to know them" Hinata said

"But my dad would have. He loved her."

Annabeth gave me a cautious look. She didn't want to burst my bubble. "Maybe you're right. Maybe he'll send a sign. That's the only way to know for sure: your father has to send you a sign claiming you as his son." She glances at Hinata "maybe your mom or dad too. Sometimes it happens."

She ignored her, so I asked "You mean sometimes it doesn't?"

Annabeth ran her palm along the rail. "The gods are busy. They have a lot of kids and they don't always ... Well, sometimes they don't care about us, Percy. They ignore us."

"Of course..." Hinata gripped the rails tightly, her voice filled with venom "They have us and then act like we don't exist. Or make us someone else's problem"

I thought about some of the kids I'd seen in the Hermes cabin, teenagers who looked sullen and depressed, as if they were waiting for a call that would never come. I'd known kids like that at Yancy Academy, shuffled off to boarding school by rich parents who didn't have the time to deal with them. I looked at my best friend, maybe she was adopted because they had no time for her or something. But still, gods should behave better.

"So we're stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of our life?"

"Like hell we are" Hinata said "I'm not spending my life here!"

"Didn't you promise Chiron to give this place a chance?" Annabeth asked "You don't seem like the type to go back on a promise"

"You don't know a damn thing about me!" Hinata said raising her voice.

"I know that you need to stop acting like a baby and face that the fact that you're one of us. Nothing you say or do will change that you're the daughter of one of the Olympians.

I never seen Hinata like this, she was losing her composure, her voice sounded so full of anger and sadness and her eyes were glossy, as if she was ready to cry. But she didn't, instead she hid her eyes under her bangs and said "I'm going back to the cabin"

"Hina-" But she ran off before I could say anything

I couldn't help but glare at Annabeth, maybe she didn't mean any harm and was just telling truth but still she just made my best friend run off, upset. Anyone would be angry about that. At least she had the decency to look ashamed "I...maybe I was a bit...harsh. I didn't mean to upset her"

"Well you still did"

"Still..." She looked in the direction Hinata ran off in "There seems to be more than meets the eye"

I felt my glare soften as I looked at her "What do you mean?"

"I mean I understand if she may dislike her parents for obvious reasons but there's more to it" Annabeth looked at me "Do you know why?"

I started to open my mouth but then shut it. I realized that there were some things about Hinata's past that I didn't know about. She told me about the family that raised her, their culture, their business and other things. She told me about the same strange experiences she had like me. But she never told me she was adopted or that she never wanted to know her real parents. I never seen her so angry before. I wondered why does she hate them so much?

I thought the best thing was for her to tell me when she wants to

I looked at Annabeth and said "She'll tell me when she's ready"

She said nothing and looked back at the lake

I repeated my previous question "So we're stuck here," I said. "That's it? For the rest of our life?"

"It depends," Annabeth said. "Some campers only stay the summer. If you're a child of Aphrodite or Demeter, you're probably not a real powerful force. The monsters might ignore you, so you can get by with a few months of summer training and live in the mortal world the rest of the year. But for some of us, it's too dangerous to leave. We're year-rounders. In the mortal world, we attract monsters. They sense us. They come to challenge us. Most of the time, they'll ignore us until we're old enough to cause trouble-about ten or eleven years old, but after that, most demigods either make their way here, or they get killed off. A few manage to survive in the outside world and become famous. Believe me, if I told you the names, you'd know them. Some don't even realize they're demigods. But very, very few are like that."

"So monsters can't get in here?"

Annabeth shook her head. "Not unless they're intentionally stocked in the woods or specially summoned by somebody on the inside."

"Why would anybody want to summon a monster?"

"Practice fights. Practical jokes."

"Practical jokes?"

"The point is, the borders are sealed to keep mortals and monsters out. From the outside, mortals look into the valley and see nothing unusual, just a strawberry farm."

"So ... you're a year-rounder?"

Annabeth nodded. From under the collar of her T-shirt she pulled a leather necklace with five clay beads of different colors. It was just like Luke's, except Annabeth's also had a big gold ring strung on it, like a college ring.

"I've been here since I was seven," she said. "Every August, on the last day of summer session, you get a bead for surviving another year. I've been here longer than most of the counselors, and they're all in college."

"Why did you come so young?"

She twisted the ring on her necklace. "None of your business."

"Oh." I stood there for a minute in uncomfortable silence. "So ... Hinata and I could just walk out of here right now if we wanted to?"

"It would be suicide, but you could, with Mr. D's or Chiron's permission. But they wouldn't give permission until the end of the summer session unless ..."

"Unless?"

"You were granted a quest. But that hardly ever happens. The last time ...

Her voice trailed off. I could tell from her tone that the last time hadn't gone well. "Back in the sick room," I said, "when you were feeding me that stuff-"

"Ambrosia."

"Yeah. You asked me something about the summer solstice."

Annabeth's shoulders tensed. "So you do know something?"

"Well... no."

"Does Hinata know anything?"

"No...back at our old school, Hinata and I overheard Grover and Chiron talking about it. Grover mentioned the summer solstice. He said something like we didn't have much time, because of the deadline. What did that mean?"

She clenched her fists. "I wish I knew. Chiron and the satyrs, they know, but they won't tell me. Something is wrong in Olympus, something pretty major. Last time I was there, everything seemed so normal."

"You've been to Olympus?"

"Some of us year-rounders-Luke and Clarisse and I and a few others-we took a field trip during winter solstice. That's when the gods have their big annual council."

"But... how did you get there?"

"The Long Island Railroad, of course. You get off at Penn Station. Empire State Building, special elevator to the six hundredth floor." She looked at me like she was sure I must know this already. "You are a New Yorker, right?"

"Oh, sure." As far as I knew, there were only a hundred and two floors in the Empire State Building, but I decided not to point that out.

"Right after we visited," Annabeth continued, "the weather got weird, as if the gods had started fighting. A couple of times since, I've overheard satyrs talking. The best I can figure out is that something important was stolen. And if it isn't returned by summer solstice, there's going to be trouble. When you came, I was hoping ... I mean- Athena can get along with just about anybody, except for Ares. And of course she's got the rivalry with Poseidon. But, I mean, aside from that, I thought we could work together. I thought you or her might know something."

I shook my head. I wished we could help her, but Hinata was too upset and I felt too hungry and tired and mentally overloaded to ask any more questions.

"I've got to get a quest," Annabeth muttered to herself. "I'm not too young. If they would just tell me the problem ..."

I could smell barbecue smoke coming from somewhere nearby. Annabeth must've heard my stomach growl. She told me to go on, she'd catch me later. I left her on the pier, tracing her finger across the rail as if drawing a battle plan.

Back at cabin eleven, everybody was talking and horsing around, waiting for dinner. For the first time, I noticed that a lot of the campers had similar features: sharp noses, upturned eyebrows, mischievous smiles. They were the kind of kids that teachers would peg as troublemakers. Thankfully, nobody paid much attention to me. As I walked over to my spot on the floor and plopped down with my minotaur horn, I saw Hinata next to me, hugging her knees.

"Hinata..." I called

She looked up, by the face on her face, I could tell she was exhausted both physically and emotionally "Hey, you're back"

"Yeah...are you ok? You don't like so good"

She shook her head "It's just a bad headache, it'll pass"

In a cabin as lively as this one, I doubted it. I wanted to comfort her, she alway did when I'm feeling down and I wanted to do the same. So I rubbed her back in a circular motion, she tensed at first but then relaxed. She gave me a small smile, silently thanking me and I smiled back and said "Anytime"

The counselor, Luke, came over. He had the Hermes family resemblance, too. It was marred by that scar on his right cheek, but his smile was intact.

"Found you guys sleeping bags," he said. "And here, I stole you some toiletries from the camp store." I couldn't tell if he was kidding about the stealing part.

I said, "Thanks."

"No prob." Luke sat next to us, pushed his back against the wall. "Tough first day?"

"I don't belong here," I said. "I don't even believe in gods. And neither does Hinata" I looked at her for support but I didn't get it. She just looked at me for a moment, thinking about what I said and went back to hugging her knees.

I looked back at Luke "W-Well I don't believe, at least"

"Yeah," he said. "That's how we all started. Once you start believing in them? It doesn't get any easier."

The bitterness in his voice surprised me, because Luke seemed like a pretty easygoing guy. He looked like he could handle just about anything.

"So your dad is Hermes?" I asked.

He pulled a switchblade out of his back pocket, and for a second I thought he was going to gut me, but he just scraped the mud off the sole of his sandal. "Yeah. Hermes."

"The wing-footed messenger guy."

"That's him. Messengers. Medicine. Travelers, merchants, thieves. Anybody who uses the roads. That's why you two are here, enjoying cabin eleven's hospitality. Hermes isn't picky about who he sponsors."

I figured Luke didn't mean to call us nobodies He just had a lot on his mind.

"You ever meet your dad?" I asked.

"Once."

I waited, thinking that if he wanted to tell me, he'd tell me. Apparently, he didn't. I wondered if the story had anything to do with how he got his scar.

Luke looked up and managed a smile and gave Hinata a one arm hug, which made her jump a little "Don't worry about it, You two. The campers here, they're mostly good people. After all, we're extended family, right? We take care of each other."

He seemed to understand how lost I felt, and I was grateful for that, because an older guy like him even if he was a counselor should've steered clear of an uncool middle-schooler like me. But Luke had welcomed both of us into the cabin. He'd even stolen us some toiletries, which was one of the nicest thing anybody had done for me all day.

I decided to ask him my last big question, the one that had been bothering me all afternoon. "Clarisse, from Ares, was joking about me being 'Big Three' material. Then Annabeth ... twice, she said Hinata or I might be 'the one.' She said we should talk to the Oracle. What was that all about?"

Luke folded his knife. "I hate prophecies."

"Prophecies?" Hinata repeated

"What do you mean?" I asked

His face twitched around the scar. "Let's just say I messed things up for everybody else. The last two years, ever since my trip to the Garden of the Hesperides went sour, Chiron hasn't allowed any more quests. Annabeth's been dying to get out into the world. She pestered Chiron so much he finally told her he already knew her fate. He'd had a prophecy from the Oracle. He wouldn't tell her the whole thing, but he said Annabeth wasn't destined to go on a quest yet. She had to wait until... somebody special came to the camp."

"Somebody special?"

"What do you mean by 'special'?" Hinata asked

"Don't worry about it, guys," Luke said. "Annabeth wants to think every new camper who comes through here is the omen she's been waiting for. Now, come on, it's dinnertime."

The moment he said it, a horn blew in the distance. Somehow, I knew it was a conch shell, even though I'd never heard one before.

"Actually Luke, if you don't mind I'll just stay here and rest" Hinata said laying a hand on her head

Luke looked at her, concerned "You feeling ok? Should I ask Chiron to check out what wrong?"

She waved her hand dismissively "No, it's nothing serious just a headache. Besides I'm not that hungry anyway"

"Are you sure, Hinata?" I asked

She hugged her knees tighter, laying her head on them "Yeah, I'm sure. Just go and eat Perce, I can hear your stomach growling"

But you need to eat too, I said to myself. Ever since we got to the camp, we haven't mouth anything in our mouths besides that ambrosia. And I'm pretty sure we worked off the meal we had at the beach, when we were fighting for our lives against the Minotaur. So how is she not hungry?

"Well...ok then. Make sure you get some rest" Luke said, patting her shoulder. He gets up and yelled, "Eleven, fall in!"

"I'll try and bring you back something, just in case" I whispered to her before getting in line

The whole cabin, about twenty of us, filed into the commons yard. We lined up in order of seniority, so of course I was dead last. Campers came from the other cabins, too, except for the three empty cabins at the end, and cabin eight, which had looked normal in the daytime, but was now starting to glow silver as the sun went down.

We marched up the hill to the mess hall pavilion. Satyrs joined us from the meadow. Naiads emerged from the canoeing lake. A few other girls came out of the woods and when I say out of the woods, I mean straight out of the woods. I saw one girl, about nine or ten years old, melt from the side of a maple tree and come skipping up the hill.

In all, there were maybe a hundred campers, a few dozen satyrs, and a dozen assorted wood nymphs and naiads.

At the pavilion, torches blazed around the marble columns. A central fire burned in a bronze brazier the size of a bathtub. Each cabin had its own table, covered in white cloth trimmed in purple. Four of the tables were empty, but cabin eleven's was way overcrowded. I had to squeeze on to the edge of a bench with half my butt hanging off.

I saw Grover sitting at table twelve with Mr. D, a few satyrs, and a couple of plump blond boys who looked just like Mr. D. Chiron stood to one side, the picnic table being way too small for a centaur.

Annabeth sat at table six with a bunch of serious looking athletic kids, all with her gray eyes and honey blond hair.

Clarisse sat behind me at Ares's table. She'd apparently gotten over being hosed down, because she was laughing and belching right alongside her friends.

Finally, Chiron pounded his hoof against the marble floor of the pavilion, and everybody fell silent. He raised a glass. "To the gods!"

Everybody else raised their glasses. "To the gods!"

Wood nymphs came forward with platters of food: grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, fresh bread, and yes, barbecue! My glass was empty, but Luke said, "Speak to it. Whatever you want nonalcoholic, of course."

I said, "Cherry Coke."

The glass filled with sparkling caramel liquid. Then I had an idea. "Blue Cherry Coke."

The soda turned a violent shade of cobalt.

I took a cautious sip. Perfect.

I drank a toast to my mother.

She's not gone, I told myself. Not permanently, anyway. She's in the Underworld. And if that's a real place, then someday...

"Here you go, Percy," Luke said, handing me a platter of smoked brisket.

I loaded my plate and was about to take a big bite when I noticed everybody getting up, carrying their plates toward the fire in the center of the pavilion. I wondered if they were going for dessert or something.

"Come on," Luke told me.

As I got closer, I saw that everyone was taking a portion of their meal and dropping it into the fire, the ripest strawberry, the juiciest slice of beef, the warmest, most buttery roll.

Luke murmured in my ear, "Burnt offerings for the gods. They like the smell."

"You're kidding."

His look warned me not to take this lightly, but I couldn't help wondering why an immortal, all powerful being would like the smell of burning food.

Luke approached the fire, bowed his head, and tossed in a cluster of fat red grapes. "Hermes." I was next.

I wished I knew what god's name to say.

Finally, I made a silent plea. Whoever you are, tell me. Please.

I scraped a big slice of brisket into the flames. When I caught a whiff of the smoke, I didn't gag.

It smelled nothing like burning food. It smelled of hot chocolate and fresh-baked brownies, hamburgers on the grill and wildflowers, and a hundred other good things that shouldn't have gone well together, but did. I could almost believe the gods could live off that smoke.

When everybody had returned to their seats and finished eating their meals, Chiron pounded his hoof again for our attention.

Mr. D got up with a huge sigh. "Yes, I suppose I'd better say hello to all you brats. Well, hello. Our activities director, Chiron, says the next capture the flag is Friday. Cabin five presently holds the laurels."

A bunch of ugly cheering rose from the Ares table.

"Personally," Mr. D continued, "I couldn't care less, but congratulations. Also, I should tell you that we have new campers today. Peter Johnson and Honey Yuma "

Chiron murmured something.

"Er, Percy Jackson and Hinata Hyuga," Mr. D corrected.

Chiron looked over at our cabin and showed concern. He must have been worried not seeing Hinata here.

Mr.D continued to speak "That's right. Hurrah, and all that. Now run along to your silly campfire. Go on."

Everybody cheered. We all headed down toward the amphitheater, where Apollo's cabin led a sing- along. We sang camp songs about the gods and ate s'mores and joked around, and the funny thing was, I didn't feel that anyone was staring at me anymore. I felt that I was home.

I decided to leave the campfire early because Hinata was still in the cabin, she must be feeling lonely and hungry. I went back to the mess hall, hoping to bring back some food to her. But when I got there, everything has already been clean up and put away. I grunted "Now what do I do?"

"I might be able to help"

I turned around and saw Chiron behind me, holding a basket of fruits and nuts, looking at me with a kind smile "I hope this will relieve her of hunger"

I took the basket "Yeah, she's a light eater, so this will be enough. Thank you"

He nodded and went back to the campfire while I quick made my way to Cabin 11

When the cabin came into my view, I saw Hinata was sitting outside the cabin, against the wall, looking at the sky.

She must have heard me coming because she glanced at me when I was still a few feet away "Perce, you didn't have to bring me a basket of food like that. Just an apple and a few grapes would do"

"Well that was the plan but then all the food in the mess hall was already cleaned up. Chiron came and gave me this"

She smiled a little "I'll have to thank him when I see him again"

"Yeah" I handed her the basket and sat next to her

She started eating, we sat with nothing but the sound of Hinata biting into an apple in our ears. I glanced over at her, there was questions I had for her, but today had been hard on her. And I didn't know where to start.

"If you want to ask me something, you can you know" She said, pulling me out of my thoughts

I felt my cheeks getting warm and I stuttered "W-What? N-No there's nothing-"

"I know you have questions Perce. It's written all over your face, so you might as well ask"

"Well...I do have questions but I don't know if you'll want to answer them yet"

She looks at me for a moment "then ask me questions I'll be comfortable answering now"

I thought for a second, then the talk with Luke popped into my mind "Why didn't you agree with me when I told Luke that we didn't believe in gods?"

She took a bite of a strawberry "Well after everything's that's happen so far and what we've seen today. I start to believe that they actually exist. I mean we did meet the God of wine. We've meet Luke, Annabeth and the Queen ape, all saying to be children of the gods and so much more."

I guess did have something, if the creatures and monsters of Greek myth exist, so would the gods, right?

My mind went right back to the conservation with Luke. When Hinata gets a headache, she stays completely silent but this time she wasn't. So I had to ask "Did you lie about giving a headache?"

Her body tensed, she avoided looking me "I...don't know what you're talking about"

"So you were lying"

"What makes you think that?"

"Because you won't look me in the eye"

She bit her lip and sighed deeply "Fine, ok I lied about it. It's not like it's a big deal"

"But why did you?"

"We've had a long day, I was tired and I wanted some time to myself"

I looked at the basket, all the fruits were gone, only nuts remained "But you were hungry, you could have stayed in there for half the time and then come get some food after"

"I wasn't in the mood to socialize when it comes to eating dinner with the rest of the cabin" She said "Besides...if I was there, I would have to do that burning thing" she mumbled

It was the tone of her voice at that last part that I got my answer "You lied to avoid the burning of food for the gods"

I watched as she clutched her fist and a scowl cane on her face. I knew she didn't like her real parents but I never thought she would hate them this much

"It's bad enough I have to stay in the camp they wanted me to stay in. Now I'm expected to do things like that for them!" She barked "They don't deserve it!"

I put my hand on her shoulder and tried to calm her down "Hinata, relax. It's ok, it's not a big deal-"

She violently shook off my hand and stood up, knocking the basket with nuts on the ground. She stood there, glaring at me "Not a big deal?! Not a big deal?! To me. It IS a big deal! For years, I've been wondering why I was so different from my parents, from everyone else? Why don't I look a thing like them? I've been told I have my mother's smile or my father's kind nature. How do you think I felt when I discovered I was adopted?!"

I didn't say anything, I just sat there listening to her

"I felt betrayed, I was lied to most of my life and abandon by my real parents." She said 'real parents' with a tone that sent chills down my spine "Before any of this, I disliked them for not keeping me and giving me away..." Her eyes were filled with tears but she refused to let them fall "But now, I not only hate them but I hate myself"

My eyes widen at that. I quickly stood up and grabbed her shoulders "Now wait just a minute, what are you-"

"My family had to put up with so much because of me...and still...they never got rid...of me" She started to tremble, holding herself "They are such kind people...and they suffered because of me...b-because of what I am"

I didn't know what to say. Here my best friend was having a little meltdown and there I was, not knowing what to say or do. Only one thing came to my mind, I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into a hug. She tensed for a moment before she hugged me back. We stood there, her face buried in my shoulder, her body against mine and her arms hugging me tight. I didn't mind, I just stroked her hair in my comfortable manner and hold her. After a while, she began to calm down, her body stopped shaking and she wasn't breathing heavily anymore

She took a deep breath and exhaled "I-I'm sorry for that little...episode. Thanks for calming me down"

I tighten my arms around her "No problem"

Even after she calmed down, we were still holding each other. I thought maybe it was because she still wanted a bit of comforting, which I didn't mind. I was there, comforting her. But at the same time, I was wondering what had happened in Hinata's life to make her feel this way.

I knew now wasn't the right time to ask but my mouth had different plans "What happened to make you feel this way?"

Luckily, instead of another meltdown, she just shook her head, telling me she was t ready to tell yet "But...I promise someday I'll tell you" she said

She broke the hug, which strangely left me a bit disappointed and held her head "Now I really am starting to get a headache"

"You should go and get some rest"

She nodded a little and opened the door to the cabin "You should get back to the campfire, I don't want you to miss out"

"I don't mind staying with you"

She turned and smiled at me "That's sweet but really. I know you want to, so go ahead. You can tell me about it in the morning, ok?"

I nodded as she was getting into the cabin, right when the door was about the close, I said "Wait!"

She stopped the door halfway and looked at me "You have another question?"

"I-I know...you need to rest...and I get it after...what just happened...b-but-"

"It's fine, but just one more ok?"

I agreed and asked "If...If this is how you really feel about the whole thing, then why haven't you tried to leave yet?"

She hesitated a bit, then said "Y-Your mom sacrificed herself to make sure we got here. I'm not even her child and she still risked herself for me. So even if I want to leave this place, I won't... because I don't want all her effort to go in vain" She looked at me and gave me a smile "Besides, if you think I'm leaving here without you, you're crazy. Where you go, I go"

I couldn't help it, a stupid grin on my face as she said that. Nobody has ever said that to me before. In the past, I thought I would never have a friend like Hinata and now here she is, I still couldn't believe how lucky I am to have her. "Yeah, we'll go anywhere together!"

She nodded "Well...goodnight Perce"

I watched her closed the door and stood there for a minute "Yeah...goodnight Hinata"

Then I went back and enjoyed the rest of the campfire

Later in the evening, when the sparks from the campfire were curling into a starry sky, the conch horn blew again, and we all filed back to our cabins. Luke told everyone to be quiet as he saw that Hinata was asleep. I knew was she exhausted after what happened. But I didn't realize how exhausted I was until I collapsed on my borrowed sleeping bag.

My fingers curled around the Minotaur's horn. I thought about my mom, but I had good thoughts: her smile, the bedtime stories she would read me when I was a kid, the way she would tell me not to let the bedbugs bite.

When I closed my eyes, I fell asleep instantly.

That was my first day at Camp Half-Blood.

I wish I'd known how briefly I would get to enjoy my new home.


	9. We capture the Flag

The next few days I settled into a routine that felt almost normal, if you don't count the fact that I was getting lessons from satyrs, nymphs, and a centaur. Hinata wasn't willing to participate in any of them the first day, so Chiron took her for a ride, hoping to talk into joining. Whatever he said worked because the next day she was there, ready to learn.

Each morning we took Ancient Greek from Annabeth, and we talked about the gods and goddesses in the present tense, which was kind of weird. I discovered Annabeth was right about my dyslexia: Ancient Greek wasn't that hard for me to read. At least, no harder than English. After a couple of mornings, I could stumble through a few lines of Homer without too much headache.

The rest of the day, Hinata and I'd rotate through outdoor activities, looking for something we was good at. Chiron tried to teach me archery, but we found out pretty quick I wasn't any good with a bow and arrow. He didn't complain, even when he had to desnag a stray arrow out of his tail. But Hinata was amazing, she shoot every target right in the middle. Chiron was so impressed and wanted to see how far she could go. So he asked the other campers for moving targets and it was the same result, she shot them with little to no problem. I asked her when she learned to do that, her answer shocked both me and Chiron.

She smiled, shrugging her shoulders "This is the first time I've actually held a bow and arrow. It just came naturally, I guess"

After that, we went to foot racing. That was no good either, well at least for me. The wood-nymph instructors left me in the dust. They told me not to worry about it. They'd had centuries of practice running away from lovesick gods. But still, it was a little humiliating to be slower than a tree. As for Hinata, she almost caught up to them, she was little disappointed but they told her they were very impressed with her speed.

And wrestling? Forget it. Every time I got on the mat, Clarisse would pulverize me.

"There's more where that came from, punk," she'd mumble in my ear.

Hinata didn't participate in that one, she said "Considering the ape queen is here, I figured it was sumo wrestling. I prefer not to be squished"

I doubled over laughing, while our instructor kept Clarisse from killing her

The only thing I really excelled at was canoeing, and that wasn't the kind of heroic skill people expected to see from the kid who had beaten the Minotaur.

I knew the senior campers and counselors were watching us, trying to decide Hinata's mom or dad was and who my dad was. But they weren't having an easy time of it, well at least with me. I wasn't as strong as the Ares kids, or as good at archery as the Apollo kids. I didn't have Hephaestus's skill with metalwork or-gods forbid- Dionysus's way with vine plants. Luke told me I might be a child of Hermes, a kind of jack-of-all-trades, master of none. But I got the feeling he was just trying to make me feel better. He really didn't know what to make of me either.

However they had a hard time with Hinata because she was multi-talented. They thought she could be Apollo's kid since she could shoot like a pro. Annabeth thought she could be Athena kid considering how well she could read people and strategize well. They definitely thought she wasn't Aphrodite kid after seeing that she's not afraid to get dirty. Chiron had told them to stop guessing when that same bitter look came across her face.

Despite all that, I liked camp. I got used to the morning fog over the beach, the smell of hot strawberry fields in the afternoon, even the weird noises of monsters in the woods at night. I would convince Hinata to eat dinner with cabin eleven, Chiron promised her most of the time she wouldn't have to burn offerings. While I would scrape part of my meal into the fire, and try to feel some connection to my real dad. Nothing came. Just that warm feeling I'd always had, like the memory of his smile. I tried not to think too much about my mom, but I kept wondering: if gods and monsters were real, if all this magical stuff was possible, surely there was some way to save her, to bring her back...

I started to understand Luke's bitterness and Hinata's anger and how they seemed to resent their parent. So okay, maybe gods had important things to do. But couldn't they call once in a while, or thunder, or something? Dionysus could make Diet Coke appear out of thin air. Why couldn't my dad, whoever he was, make a phone appear?

Thursday afternoon, three days after I'd arrived at Camp Half-Blood, I had my first sword-fighting lesson. I was on my own, Chiron had asked Hinata to help him in his beginner's archery class. Anyway, everybody from cabin eleven gathered in the big circular arena, where Luke would be our instructor.

We started with basic stabbing and slashing, using some straw-stuffed dummies in Greek armor. I guess I did okay. At least, I understood what I was supposed to do and my reflexes were good.

The problem was, I couldn't find a blade that felt right in my hands. Either they were too heavy, or too light, or too long. Luke tried his best to fix me up, but he agreed that none of the practice blades seemed to work for me.

We moved on to dueling in pairs. Luke announced he would be my partner, since this was my first time. "Good luck," one of the campers told me.

"Luke's the best swordsman in the last three hundred years."

"Maybe he'll go easy on me," I said.

The camper snorted.

Luke showed me thrusts and parries and shield blocks the hard way. With every swipe, I got a little more battered and bruised. "Keep your guard up, Percy," he'd say, then whap me in the ribs with the flat of his blade. "No, not that far up!" Whap! "Lunge!" Whap! "Now, back!" Whap!

By the time he called a break, I was soaked in sweat. Everybody swarmed the drinks cooler. Luke poured ice water on his head, which looked like such a good idea, I did the same.

Instantly, I felt better. Strength surged back into my arms. The sword didn't feel so awkward. "Okay, everybody circle up!" Luke ordered. "If Percy doesn't mind, I want to give you a little demo." Great, I thought. Let's all watch Percy get pounded.

The Hermes guys gathered around. They were suppressing smiles. I figured they'd been in my shoes before and couldn't wait to see how Luke used me for a punching bag. He told everybody he was going to demonstrate a disarm-ing technique: how to twist the enemy's blade with the flat of your own sword so that he had no choice but to drop his weapon.

"This is difficult," he stressed. "I've had it used against me. No laughing at Percy, now. Most swordsmen have to work years to master this technique."

He demonstrated the move on me in slow motion. Sure enough, the sword clattered out of my hand.

"Now in real time," he said, after I'd retrieved my weapon. "We keep sparring until one of us pulls it off. Ready, Percy?"

I nodded, and Luke came after me. Somehow, I kept him from getting a shot at the hilt of my sword. My senses opened up. I saw his attacks coming. I countered. I stepped forward and tried a thrust of my own. Luke deflected it eas-ily, but I saw a change in his face. His eyes narrowed, and he started to press me with more force.

The sword grew heavy in my hand. The balance wasn't right. I knew it was only a matter of seconds before Luke took me down, so I figured, What the heck?

I tried the disarming maneuver.

My blade hit the base of Luke's and I twisted, putting my whole weight into a downward thrust.

Clang.

Luke's sword rattled against the stones. The tip of my blade was an inch from his undefended chest. The other campers were silent.

I lowered my sword. "Um, sorry."

For a moment, Luke was too stunned to speak.

"Sorry?" His scarred face broke into a grin. "By the gods, Percy, why are you sorry? Show me that again!" I didn't want to. The short burst of manic energy had completely abandoned me. But Luke insisted.

This time, there was no contest. The moment our swords connected, Luke hit my hilt and sent my weapon skidding across the floor.

After a long pause, somebody in the audience said, "Beginner's luck?"

Luke wiped the sweat off his brow. He appraised at me with an entirely new interest. "Maybe," he said. "But I wonder what Percy could do with a balanced sword... ."

Friday afternoon, Hinata and I was sitting with Grover at the lake, resting from a near death experience on the climbing wall. Grover had scampered to the top like a mountain goat, Hinata climbed quickly but carefully to avoid getting burned, but the lava had almost gotten me. My shirt had smoking holes in it. The hairs had been singed off my forearms. A small fire was caught on the tip of my hair, I was about the panic but Hinata used her index finger and thumb to put it out.

We sat on the pier, watching the naiads do underwater basket-weaving, until I got up the nerve to ask Grover how his conversation had gone with Mr. D.

His face turned a sickly shade of yellow. "Fine," he said. "Just great."

Hinata looked concerned "You sure? You look like you're about to be sick"

He waved his hands in front of her face "All in your head"

Hinata sighed and gestured me to talk to him

"So your career's still on track?"

He glanced at us nervously. "Chiron t-told you guys I want a searcher's license?"

"Well... no." I had no idea what a searcher's license was, but it didn't seem like the right time to ask. "He just said you had big plans, you know ... and that you needed credit for completing a keeper's assignment. So did you get it?"

Grover looked down at the naiads. "Mr. D suspended judgment. He said I hadn't failed or succeeded with you guys yet, so our fates were still tied together. If you two got a quest and I went along to protect you guys, and we both came back alive, then maybe he'd consider the job complete."

My spirits lifted. "Well, that's not so bad, right?"

"Yeah! We'll just go get a quest and you'll be able to show them what you got!" Hinata said confidently

"Blaa-ha-ha! He might as well have transferred me to stable-cleaning duty. The chances of you two getting a quest... and even if you did, why would you want me along?"

"Of course We'd want you along!" I said

Grover stared glumly into the water. "Basket-weaving ... Must be nice to have a useful skill."

We tried to reassure him that he had lots of talents, but that just made him look more miserable. We talked about canoeing, archery and swordplay for a while, then debated the pros and cons of the different gods. Finally, I asked him about the five empty cabins.

"Number eight, the silver one, belongs to Artemis," he said. "She vowed to be a maiden forever. So of course, no kids. The cabin is, you know, honorary. If she didn't have one, she'd be mad."

"Yeah, okay. But the other three, the ones at the end. Are those the Big Three?"

Grover tensed. We were getting close to a touchy subject. "No. One of them, number two, is Hera's," he said. "That's another honorary thing. She's the goddess of marriage, so of course she wouldn't go around having affairs with mortals. That's her husband's job. When we say the Big Three, we mean the three powerful brothers, the sons of Kronos."

"Zeus, Poseidon, Hades."

"Right. You know. After the great battle with the Titans, they took over the world from their dad and drew lots to decide who got what."

"Zeus got the sky," I remembered. "Poseidon the sea, Hades the Underworld."

"Uh-huh."

"I doubt Hades liked the part he got" Hinata said

"No, he did not but he's living with it"

"But Hades doesn't have a cabin here though"

"No. He doesn't have a throne on Olympus, either. He sort of does his own thing down in the Underworld. If he did have a cabin here ..." Grover shuddered. "Well, it wouldn't be pleasant. Let's leave it at that."

"But Zeus and Poseidon they both had, like, a bazillion kids in the myths. Why are their cabins empty?" I asked

Grover shifted his hooves uncomfortably. "About sixty years ago, after World War II, the Big Three agreed they wouldn't sire any more heroes. Their children were just too powerful. They were affecting the course of human events too much, causing too much carnage. World War II, you know, that was basically a fight between the sons of Zeus and Poseidon on one side, and the sons of Hades on the other. The winning side, Zeus and Poseidon, made Hades swear an oath with them: no more affairs with mortal women. They all swore on the River Styx."

Thunder boomed.

I said, "That's the most serious oath you can make."

Grover nodded.

"And the brothers kept their word no kids?"

Grover's face darkened.

Hinata placed an arm over his shoulder "Your expression is tell us no, care to explain?"

He let out a shakily sigh "Seventeen years ago, Zeus fell off the wagon. There was this TV starlet with a big fluffy eighties hairdo-he just couldn't help himself. When their child was born, a little girl named Thalia .. . well, the River Styx is serious about promises. Zeus himself got off easy because he's immortal, but he brought a terrible fate on his daughter."

"But that isn't fair.' It wasn't the little girl's fault." I argued

"How or why would this even happen?" Hinata asked, her grip on Grover tighten a bit

Grover hesitated. "Guys, children of the Big Three have powers greater than other half-bloods. They have a strong aura, a scent that attracts monsters. When Hades found out about the girl, he wasn't too happy about Zeus breaking his oath. Hades let the worst monsters out of Tartarus to torment Thalia. A satyr was assigned to be her keeper when she was twelve, but there was nothing he could do. He tried to escort her here with a couple of other half-bloods she'd befriended. They almost made it. They got all the way to the top of that hill."

He pointed across the valley, to the pine tree where Hinata and I'd fought the minotaur. "All three Kindly Ones were after them, along with a horde of hellhounds. They were about to be overrun when Thalia told her satyr to take the other two half-bloods to safety while she held off the monsters. She was wounded and tired, and she didn't want to live like a hunted animal. The satyr didn't want to leave her, but he couldn't change her mind, and he had to protect the others. So Thalia made her final stand alone, at the top of that hill. As she died, Zeus took pity on her. He turned her into that pine tree. Her spirit still helps protect the borders of the valley. That's why the hill is called Half-Blood Hill."

We stared at the pine in the distance.

The story made me feel hollow, and guilty too. A girl our age had sacrificed herself to save her friends. She had faced a whole army of monsters. Next to that, our victory over the Minotaur didn't seem like much. I wondered, if I'd acted differently, could I have saved my mother?

"Grover," I said, "have heroes really gone on quests to the Underworld?"

"Sometimes," he said. "Orpheus. Hercules. Houdini."

"And have they ever returned somebody from the dead?"

Hinata gave me a knowing look when I said that. And if I know her, she probably knew what I was planning before I even planned it.

"No. Never. Orpheus came close... . Percy, you're not seriously thinking-"

"No," I lied. "I was just wondering. So ... a satyr is always assigned to guard a demigod?"

Grover studied me warily. I hadn't persuaded him that I'd really dropped the Underworld idea. "Not always. We go undercover to a lot of schools. We try to sniff out the half-bloods who have the makings of great heroes. If we find one with a very strong aura, like a child of the Big Three, we alert Chiron. He tries to keep an eye on them, since they could cause really huge problems."

"And you found us. Chiron said you thought we might be something special."

Grover looked as if I'd just led him into a trap. "I didn't... Oh, listen, don't think like that. If you were you know you'd never ever be allowed a quest, and I'd never get my license. You're probably a child of Hermes. Or maybe even one of the minor gods, like Nemesis, the god of revenge. Don't worry, okay?"

I got the idea he was reassuring himself more than me.

Grover looked down at his hands, nervously "B-But...it's not just you..."

"What do you mean?"

He seemed to be in thought as he glanced at Hinata "Your aura..."

She raised an eyebrow "Yes...what about it?"

Grover jumped when he realized he said it out loud and shakes his head frantically "No, it's nothing! I'm just trying to keep the conversation going, you know? So we don't just sit here in an awkward silence!"

She looked at him for a minute, considering maybe to force the truth out of him or not. She sighed "Alright then..."

She pointed to the cabin in the middle of all the other cabins, the plain white one "That cabin, what's the deal with it?"

I looked over at the cabin too "Yeah, it's like the only cabin that not painted or decorated or anything."

Grover stared at the cabin "That cabin is different from the others..."

"Chiron told us that this cabin was built for special children, but he never said what makes them special" Hinata said

"He said that those children thought they might not need to be here or that they believe they were more superior than the others here" I added

"Well what he said is right" He said

"Grover..." Hinata said with a curious look in her face "What made those children think those things?"

He chewed his bottom lip, looking at the ground then sighed deeply "It's because...the children allowed in that cabin...have two godly parents."

We both stared at him for a moment "You mean...two of the Olympians..."

"Had a child together, yes. And those type of children are meant to go into that cabin. When one does, the cabin will start to show the characteristics of their parents like the paint or carvings of their sacred animal."

A kid with two godly parents? "But wouldn't that make them a god too?" I asked

Grover shakes his head "Just because that child born with two godly parents doesn't make them a god. I mean some do like Ares but the rest are demigods, but they're way different from others."

"How's that?"

"Their auras are very strong like a child of the Big Three if not stronger. They can inherit powers that normal demigods can't or that is rare for them to have."

I was totally lost at what he said. I looked over at Hinata and she looked just as confused as I was.

Grover saw our face and blushed a bit "Maybe...an example would help?"

"That would be nice" She said

"Ok, you know Aphrodite, the goddess of love right? She's able to change her appearance whenever she want. So her children, that are normal demigods, wouldn't inherit that ability but the child with another god would."

Hinata nodded "Well that's something. I can see how that is, I mean those children are more in touch with their godly powers than normal demigods"

Grover continued "But like Ares, there are some who gain their own power. I mean just think about it, normal demigods inherit their powers from their godly parent, can you imagine a child with powers from both his/her parents or having powers of their very own?"

Hinata and I were in awe "Wow, that's...just wow."

"It is! But those type of kids are rare, most don't get their own"

I thought the whole thing was overwhelming. I mean how can one kid have that much power? The whole idea of it was unbelievable. But when I thought about it hard, something didn't add up. "Grover, wouldn't that kid be more dangerous than one born from the Big Three?"

Hinata nodded "Yeah, I mean that child maybe just as powerful or more"

Grover seemed like he was thinking hard "Well...a child born of two gods hasn't really been born in like a long time. I mean way before World War II, so Zeus figured it wouldn't be necessary for an oath like that to be made."

"And what if a kid like that those come along?" I asked

In an instant, his face turned pale "L-Let's just h-hope not."

That night after dinner, there was a lot more excitement than usual.

At last, it was time for capture the flag.

When the plates were cleared away, the conch horn sounded and we all stood at our tables.

Campers yelled and cheered as Annabeth and two of her siblings ran into the pavilion carrying a silk banner. It was about ten feet long, glistening gray, with a painting of a barn owl above an olive tree. From the opposite side of the pavilion, Clarisse and her buddies ran in with another banner, of identical size, but gaudy red, painted with a bloody spear and a boar's head.

Hinata stood by my side as I turned to Luke and yelled over the noise, "Those are the flags?"

"Yeah."

"Ares and Athena always lead the teams?"

"Not always," he said. "But often."

"So, if another cabin captures one, what do you do repaint the flag?" He grinned. "You'll see. First we have to get one."

"Whose side are we on?"

He gave us a sly look, as if he knew something we didn't. The scar on his face made him look almost evil in the torchlight.

"We've made a temporary alliance with Athena. Tonight, we get the flag from Ares. And you two are going to help."

"So what's the plan?" Hinata asked

He gave her a wink "Just wait and see, sweetheart."

She rolled her eyes but didn't say anything

The teams were announced. Athena had made an alliance with Apollo and Hermes, the two biggest cabins. Apparently, privileges had been traded shower times, chore schedules, the best slots for activities in order to win support.

Ares had allied themselves with everybody else: Dionysus, Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hephaestus. From what I'd seen, Dionysus's kids were actually good athletes, but there were only two of them. Demeter's kids had the edge with nature skills and outdoor stuff but they weren't very aggressive. Aphrodite's sons and daughters I wasn't too worried about. They mostly sat out every activity and checked their reflections in the lake and did their hair and gossiped. Hephaestus's kids weren't pretty, and there were only four of them, but they were big and burly from working in the metal shop all day. They might be a problem. That, of course, left Ares's cabin: a dozen of the biggest, ugliest, meanest kids on Long Island, or anywhere else on the planet.

Chiron hammered his hoof on the marble.

"Heroes!" he announced. "You know the rules. The creek is the boundary line. The entire forest is fair game. All magic items are allowed. The banner must be prominently displayed, and have no more than two guards. Prisoners may be disarmed, but may not be bound or gagged. No killing or maiming is allowed. I will serve as referee and battlefield medic. Arm yourselves!"

He spread his hands, and the tables were suddenly covered with equipment: helmets, bronze swords, spears, oxhide shields coated in metal.

"Whoa," I said. "We're really supposed to use these?"

Luke looked at me as if I were crazy. "Unless you want to get skewered by your friends in cabin five. Here-Chiron thought these would fit. You'll be on border patrol."

My shield was the size of an NBA backboard, with a big caduceus in the middle. It weighed about a million pounds. I could have snowboarded on it fine, but I hoped nobody seriously expected me to run fast. My helmet, like all the helmets on Athena's side, had a blue horsehair plume on top. Ares and their allies had red plumes.

Hinata took a good look at the shield "It's good quality, looks very sturdy. Do I get one too?"

"No but that's because you won't need one. You're the team's eyes."

"Eyes?"

"You're amazing at climbing trees and jumping branch to branch, so you'll be up in the trees, silently taking down the other team with your arrows."

She looked impressed "Using my families skill to the team's advantage. Clever"

He looked pleased with himself and I frowned, feeling strangely upset at him.

I came closer to him and whispered "Dude, you're cool and all but you need to stop trying to impress her, it's kinda annoying."

He smirks "Jealous?"

Before I could say anything, Annabeth yelled, "Blue team, forward!"

We cheered and shook our swords and followed her down the path to the south woods. The red team yelled taunts at us as they headed off toward the north.

I managed to catch up with Annabeth without tripping over my equipment. "Hey."

She kept marching.

"So what's the plan?" I asked. "Got any magic items you can loan me?"

Her hand drifted toward her pocket, as if she were afraid I'd stolen something.

"Just watch Clarisse's spear," she said. "You don't want that thing touching you. Otherwise, don't worry. We'll take the banner from Ares. Has Luke given you and Hinata your jobs?"

"Mine is border patrol, whatever that means."

"It's easy. Stand by the creek, keep the reds away. Leave the rest to me. Athena always has a plan." She pushed ahead, leaving me in the dust.

"Okay," I mumbled. "Glad you wanted me on your team."

I felt someone pat me on the back and turned to see Hinata giving me a small smile

"Hey, don't be discouraged. I'm sure you'll be kicking butt in no time"

"I don't know, you got a pretty cool job and I get the lame one."

Her eyes soften "Every job is important in their own way. Who knows maybe your job may make a difference in whether we win or lose"

"Maybe..."

She adjust my helmet and pat my shoulder "I'll be up in the trees near your area. Luke never told where I had to be, so if nothing happens, we'll be bored together."

"You don't have to-"

"And if an enemy or enemies do come your way, just yell 'Tasukete' and I'll come"

"Taso-what?"

"Tasukete, it's japanese for help"

"Hinata, you really don't-"

"My mind is made up, Perce"

And with that said, she quickly climbed up onto the nearest tree and disappear behind the leaves.

"She's so stubborn..." But I couldn't help but smile as I said that. She's alway thinking of other people and their feelings.

It was a warm, sticky night. The woods were dark, with fireflies popping in and out of view. Annabeth stationed me next to a little creek that gurgled over some rocks, then she and the rest of the team scattered into the trees.

Standing there alone, with my big blue feathered helmet and my huge shield, I felt like an idiot. The bronze sword, like all the swords I'd tried so far, seemed balanced wrong. The leather grip pulled on my hand like a bowling ball.

There was no way anybody would actually attack me, would they? I mean, Olympus had to have liability issues, right?

Far away, the conch horn blew. I heard whoops and yells in the woods, the clanking of metal, kids fighting. A blue plumed ally from Apollo raced past me like a deer, leaped through the creek, and disappeared into enemy territory.

Great, I thought. I'll miss all the fun, as usual. And now so will Hinata. Great, now I feel worse.

Then I heard a sound that sent a chill up my spine, a low canine growl, somewhere close by.

I raised my shield instinctively; I had the feeling something was stalking me.

Then the growling stopped. I felt the presence retreating.

On the other side of the creek, the underbrush exploded. Five Ares warriors came yelling and screaming out of the dark.

"Cream the punk!" Clarisse screamed.

Her ugly pig eyes glared through the slits of her helmet. She brandished a five-foot-long spear, its barbed metal tip flickering with red light. Her siblings had only the standard issue bronze swords not that that made me feel any better.

They charged across the stream. There was no help in sight. I could run. Or I could defend myself against half the Ares cabin.

I managed to sidestep the first kid's swing, but these guys were not as stupid the Minotaur. They surrounded me, and Clarisse thrust at me with her spear. My shield deflected the point, but I felt a painful tingling all over my body. My hair stood on end. My shield arm went numb, and the air burned.

Electricity. Her stupid spear was electric. I fell back.

Another Ares guy slammed me in the chest with the butt of his sword and I hit the dirt.

They could've kicked me into jelly, but they were too busy laughing.

"Give him a haircut," Clarisse said. "Grab his hair."

I managed to get to my feet. I raised my sword, but Clarisse slammed it aside with her spear as sparks flew. Now both my arms felt numb.

"Oh, wow," Clarisse said. "I'm scared of this guy. Really scared."

"The flag is that way," I told her. I wanted to sound angry, but I was afraid it didn't come out that way.

"Yeah," one of her siblings said. "But see, we don't care about the flag. We care about a guy who made our cabin look stupid."

"You do that without my help," I told them. It probably wasn't the smartest thing to say.

Then I thought, I could just stand and fight alone but with my opponents being of Ares kids. And one of them being Clarisse with a electric spear, I needed the help. I took a deep breath and shouted "Tasukete!"

There was silence for a few moments before they started laughing at me.

"What was that? Are you going crazy?" A guy snickered, raising his sword "I'll knock some sense right- AAAH!"

He dropped his sword and I could see a deep cut with blood coming out of his hand.

Clarisse looked annoyed and confused "H-Hey! What happened?!"

"S-Something shot pass my hand and cut it!" He yelled, dropping his shield to clutch his hand

"Quit being a baby! It's just a cut and you call yourself-"

Another yelp was heard and Clarisse turned to see her sister now clutching her arm "What?!"

"S-Someone's shooting at us!"

Clarisse looked around but saw no one in the area. "No ones here except this punk and us!"

Then a loud thud was heard, the Ares kids turned and I smiled when I saw Hinata standing on that guy's back. Behind her helmet, I could see she was giving Clarisse an evil glare.

Her look of shock soon changed to anger "It's the brat!"

She stepped off his back and came to my side "You doing ok?"

"I've been better"

"Aw how cute, you called your girlfriend so she could save you." Clarisse said

I felt my cheeks getting warm, before I could say anything Hinata spoke "You got it all wrong, Queen Kong. I was just up thinking it was time to knock you off that building you're climbing on"

Wow, with how red her face was turning, I thought Clarisse's head was going to explode. She turned to her injured siblings and yelled "You better prove yourself now, make her regret ever messing with us or you'll have to deal with me later!"

That made them to forget about their pain and charge at her.

Two of the other came at me. I backed up toward the creek, tried to raise my shield, but Clarisse was too fast. Her spear stuck me straight in the ribs. If I hadn't been wearing an armored breastplate, I would've been shish-ke-babbed. As it was, the electric point just about shocked my teeth out of my mouth. One of her cabinmates slashed his sword across my arm, leaving a good-size cut.

Seeing my own blood made me dizzy warm and cold at the same time.

"No maiming," I managed to say.

"Oops," the other guy said. "Guess I lost my dessert privilege."

"Percy!" Hinata elbowed the first guy in face, grabbed his shield and ran my way.

Clarisse saw her coming and blocked her way "Going somewhere?"

"Get out of my way!"

Hinata held the shield in front of her and charged. I saw Clarisse about to stab the shield. Just like she did to me!

I tried to run over but the guy was holding me back "You're not going anywhere. She's about get what she deserves"

I looked over and saw Hinata drop the shield after Clarisse stab it. She looked confused about what happened. I saw the guy she elbowed come up from behind and shouted "Look out!"

Before she could, he grab her armpits and lifted her off the ground. She struggled in his grip, turning to head butt him but moved way she could.

"Let go of me!" She yelled

I was struggling against the guy holding me as I saw Clarisse walking towards her with a satisfied smirk. She took her spear and stab her chest plate. It protected her from being a shish-ke-bab but not from the electric shocks. She bit her lip so she wouldn't cry out in pain.

Clarisse pulled back her spear and looked at her work. Hinata slumped in the guy's arms, her breathes were heavy and she looked like she was in pain.

"So, still think I'm Queen Kong?" She said smirking

Despite how she was feeling, I saw Hinata smirking back "Sorry...I was wrong. You're definitely King Kong himself"

Clarisse smirk dropped and changed into a nasty scowl. She raised her spear, ready to strike again"You little-"

"Stop, you stupid ogre!" I yelled, struggling even harder to get out and help Hinata.

Clarisse lowered her spear and turned to me with an evil glare on her face. Then she looked at the guy holding me "Throw him in the creek"

He pushed me into the creek and I landed with a splash. They all laughed. I figured as soon as they were through being amused, I would die. Hinata started struggling again, calling my name. Then something happened. The water seemed to wake up my senses, as if I'd just had a bag of my mom's double espresso jelly beans.

Clarisse told her brother to keep holding Hinata while she and other her cabinmates came into the creek to get me, but I stood to meet them. I knew what to do. I swung the flat of my sword against the first guy's head and knocked his helmet clean off. I hit him so hard I could see his eyes vibrating as he crumpled into the water.

Ugly Number Two and Ugly Number Three came at me. I slammed one in the face with my shield and used my sword to shear off the other guy's horsehair plume. Both of them backed up quick. Ugly Number Four didn't look really anxious to attack, but Clarisse kept coming, the point of her spear crackling with energy. As soon as she thrust, I caught the shaft between the edge of my shield and my sword, and I snapped it like a twig.

"Ah!" she screamed. "You idiot! You corpse breath worm!"

She probably would've said worse, but I smacked her between the eyes with my sword-butt and sent her stumbling backward out of the creek. I turn to go help my friend but saw the guy that was holding her on the ground, unconscious. After making sure he was down, Hinata came toward me and pulled me into a hug.

"You idiot..." She muttered in the hug "You used yourself as bait, didn't you?"

I tightened my arms around her, smiling "Hey, you did it twice remember? Besides you were hogging all the fun."

She pulled away from the hug a bit and laughed

Then we heard yelling, elated screams, and saw Luke racing toward the boundary line with the red team's banner lifted high. He was flanked by a couple of Hermes guys covering his retreat, and a few Apollos behind them, fighting off the Hephaestus kids. The Ares folks got up, and Clarisse muttered a dazed curse.

"A trick!" she shouted. "It was a trick."

They staggered after Luke, but it was too late. Everybody converged on the creek as Luke ran across into friendly territory. Our side exploded into cheers. The red banner shimmered and turned to silver. The boar and spear were replaced with a huge caduceus, the symbol of cabin eleven. Everybody on the blue team picked up Luke and started carrying him around on their shoulders. Chiron cantered out from the woods and blew the conch horn.

The game was over. We'd won.

I turned to Hinata "Shall we?"

"After you, sir"

We were about to join the celebration when Annabeth's voice, right next to us in the creek, said, "Not bad, heroes."

I looked, but she wasn't there.

"I know Hinata had prior training but where the heck did you learn to fight like that?" she asked. The air shimmered, and she materialized, holding a Yankees baseball cap as if she'd just taken it off her head.

I felt myself getting angry. I wasn't even fazed by the fact that she'd just been invisible. "You set me up," I said. "You put me here because you knew Clarisse would come after me. while you sent Luke around the flank. You had it all figured out."

Annabeth shrugged. "I told you. Athena always, always has a plan."

"So, your plan involved getting him pulverized?" Hinata asked, glaring at her

"I came as fast as I could. I was about to jump in, but ..." She shrugged. "You didn't need help."

My anger increased "Hinata was getting shocked! You could have jumped in then!"

She sheepishly looked at the ground "I...well I...wanted to see..."

"If I could break from his grip, right?" Hinata said, finishing her thought

"Yeah"

I shook my head "You've got to be kidding me"

She gave me a slightly annoyed look "It worked out. Only minor injures, nothing life threatening"

Then she noticed my wounded arm. "How did you do that?"

"Sword cut," I said. "What do you think?"

"No. It was a sword cut."

Hinata took my arm for a closer look "Perce, your wound is gone"

My eyes widen "What?"

"Take a look"

The blood was gone. Where the huge cut had been, there was a long white scratch, and even that was fading. As I watched, it turned into a small scar, and disappeared.

"I-I don't get it," I said.

Annabeth was thinking hard. I could almost see the gears turning. She looked down at my feet, then at Clarisse's broken spear, and said, "Step out of the water, Percy."

"What-"

"Just do it."

I came out of the creek and immediately felt bone tired. My arms started to go numb again. My adrenaline rush left me. I almost fell over, but Hinata steadied me.

"Oh, Styx," she cursed. "This is not good. I didn't want ... I assumed it would be Zeus... ."

Hinata looked at her, worried "Annabeth, what's this mean?"

Before I could ask what she meant, I heard that canine growl again, but much closer than before. A howl ripped through the forest.

The campers' cheering died instantly. Chiron shouted something in Ancient Greek, which I would realize, only later, I had understood perfectly: "Stand ready! My bow!"

Annabeth drew her sword.

There on the rocks just above us was a black hound the size of a rhino, with lava red eyes and fangs like daggers.

It was looking straight at me and Hinata

Nobody moved except Annabeth, who yelled, "Percy, Hinata! Run!"

She tried to step in front of us, But the hound was too fast. It leaped over her-an enormous shadow with teeth-and just as it hit me, as I stumbled backward and felt its razor-sharp claws ripping through my armor, Hinata screamed "STOP!"

The hound pause from it's next attack, before I could breath, a blindly light came from her hands and shot through the hound, killing it.

By some miracle, I was still alive. I didn't want to look underneath the ruins of my shredded armor. My chest felt warm and wet, and I knew I was badly cut. Another second, and the monster would've turned me into a hundred pounds of delicatessen meat.

Hinata looked so tired but came to me quickly. "Percy! God, look at you!"

She kneed besides me, checking on my wounds being careful not to hurt me.

Chiron trotted up next to us, a bow in his hand, his face grim.

"Di immortales!" Annabeth said. "That's a hellhound from the Fields of Punishment. They don't ... they're not supposed to ..."

"Someone summoned it," Chiron said. "Someone inside the camp."

Luke came over, the banner in his hand forgotten, his moment of glory gone.

Clarisse yelled, "It's all their fault! Percy and Hinata summoned it!"

"Be quiet, child," Chiron told her.

We watched the body of the hellhound melt into shadow, soaking into the ground until it disappeared.

"Look, we have no time for this!" Hinata exclaimed, stumbling to help me onto my feet "He's wounded, we need to stop the bleeding!"

I was more worried about her than myself, she looked drained and ready to pass out. Whatever she did took out of her than Clarisse and her cabinmates.

"Quick, Percy, get in the water." Annabeth told me

"I'm okay."

"No, you're not," she said. "Chiron, watch this."

I was too tired to argue. With Hinata's help, I stepped back into the creek, the whole camp gathering around me. Instantly, I felt better. I could feel the cuts on my chest closing up. Some of the campers gasped.

"Look, I-I don't know why," I said, trying to apologize. "I'm sorry..."

But they weren't watching my wounds heal. They were staring at something above my head.

"Percy," Annabeth said, pointing. "Um ..."

"What?!"

Hinata took her hand and gently tilt my head upward

By the time I looked up, the sign was already fading, but I could still make out the hologram of green light, spinning and gleaming. A three-tipped spear: a trident.

"Your father," Annabeth murmured. "This is really not good."

"It is determined," Chiron announced.

All around me and Hinata, campers started kneeling, even the Ares cabin, though they didn't look happy about it.

"My father?" I asked, completely bewildered.

"Poseidon," said Chiron. "Earthshaker, Stormbringer, Father of Horses. Hail, Perseus Jackson, Son of the Sea God."

"P-Perce...you...dad"

Before she could say more, Hinata's eyes rolled back and she collapsed into my arms, unconscious.

"Hinata!" I shouted

I fell to my knees, adjusting her so her head was on my right shoulder "Hinata?! Hinata are you ok?!"

Around us, I heard the campers gasped again. I look to see that were looking above us again. But this time it was directly above Hinata. The hologram was golden bright, shining and warm: a golden lyre.

But that wasn't all.

Everyone, even Chiron and me, gasped even louder when a reddish glow came over her.

"No, why now?" Chiron muttered "Why this sweet girl?"

The glow disappeared and so did the clothes she was wearing before. Now she was in a beautiful white dress that went down to her knees. Delicate golden armbands and brackets on her wrists and biceps, golden scandals shined on her feet. Hinata's hair grew up to her shoulders and who made into an elegant braid. A golden headband with a diamond heart in the middle was around her head. She even had pink blush on her cheeks and gloss on her lips.

Annabeth was in shock "I...don't believe it! She's...She's..."

"So beautiful" I said to myself

Chiron came up to me and took her into his arms. "She has been claimed twice."

I remember our conservation with Grover earlier "So that means..."

"Aphrodite, Lady of the Doves" He said "And Apollo, Slayer of Python. Hail, Hinata Hyuga, Daughter of the Goddess of Love and the Sun God"

* * *

 **I'm so so so so so sorry for the super late update! I just don't know what's wrong with me. But I'm back now and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review!**


	10. We Are Offered A Quest

The next day wasn't pleasant.

I spent the night in the infirmary, looking after Hinata. I must have fell asleep because I woke up to her rising and Chiron's calming voices. He must have told her about last night. I kept my head down, pretending to sleep, but kept my ears open.

"Please my dear, you can't just ignore this." Chiron said

"Why the hell not?! They ignored me for years! They left me on someone's front steps and walked away! Making me someone else's problem!" She yelled "And now you're telling me to embrace all of this?!"

I heard Chiron tone become a bit firmer "Yes, I am. Listen to me, I don't know what in your past has made you feel the way you do but you can't change the fact you are Apollo's and Aphrodite's daughter. You may think that they abandon you but how can you be so sure of that?"

I didn't hear her say anything and Chiron took that as a sign to continue.

"The gods actions may seem a bit different but there is alway a reason behind them. My dear, maybe they thought it would be best for you. If you cooperate, who knows maybe you'll see the reason behind their actions."

I heard her mutter "There is no reason to let what happened happen."

Later that morning, Chiron moved me to cabin three and Hinata to cabin 13.

I didn't have to share with anybody. I had plenty of room for all my stuff: the Minotaur's horn, one set of spare clothes, and a toiletry bag. I got to sit at my own dinner table, pick all my own activities, call "lights out" whenever I felt like it, and not listen to anybody else.

And I was absolutely miserable.

Just when I'd started to feel accepted, to feel I had a home in cabin eleven with my best friend and we might be a normal kids or as normal as you can be when you're a half 'd been separated out as if I had some rare disease. And worse of all, I was separated from her.

Nobody mentioned the hellhound, but I got the feeling they were all talking about it behind our back. The attack had scared everybody. It sent three messages: one, that I was the son of the Sea God; two, Hinata was the daughter of the Sun God and Love Goddess and three, monsters would stop at nothing to kill us. They could even invade a camp that had always been considered safe.

However, my misery was mostly because I was on my own. Ever since that talk, Hinata refused to come out of her cabin. No matter who spoke to her whether it was Chiron or me, she'd say the same thing 'Please leave me alone.'

The other campers steered clear of me as much as possible. Cabin eleven was too nervous to have sword class with me after what I'd done to the Ares folks in the woods, so my lessons with Luke became one-on-one. He pushed me harder than ever, and wasn't afraid to bruise me up in the process.

"You're going to need all the training you can get," he promised, as we were working with swords and flaming torches. "Now let's try that viper beheading strike again. Fifty more repetitions."

Annabeth still taught me Greek in the mornings, but she seemed distracted. Every time I said something, she scowled at me, as if I'd just poked her between the eyes.

After lessons, she would walk away muttering to herself: "Quest ... Poseidon? ... Dirty rotten ... Got to make a plan ... Please let it be Apollo."

Even Clarisse kept her distance, though her venomous looks made it clear she wanted to kill me for breaking her magic spear. I wished she would just yell or punch me or something. I'd rather get into fights every day than be ignored.

I knew somebody at camp resented me, because one night I came into my cabin and found a mortal newspaper dropped inside the doorway, a copy of the New York Daily News, opened to the Metro page. The article took me almost an hour to read, because the angrier I got, the more the words floated around on the page.

BOY, MOTHER AND FRIEND STILL MISSING

AFTER FREAK CAR ACCIDENT

BY EILEEN SMYTHE

Sally Jackson, son Percy and friend Hinata Hyuga are still missing one week after their mysterious disappearance. The family's badly burned '78 Camaro was discovered last Saturday on a north Long Island road with the roof ripped off and the front axle broken. The car had flipped and skidded for several hundred feet before exploding.

Mother, son and friend had gone for a weekend vacation to Montauk, but left hastily, under mysterious circum-stances. Small traces of blood were found in the car and near the scene of the wreck, but there were no other signs of the missing Jacksons and Hyuga. Residents in the rural area reported seeing nothing unusual around the time of the accident.

Ms. Jackson's husband, Gabe Ugliano, claims that his stepson, Percy Jackson, and his friend, Hinata Hyuga are troubled children who has been kicked out of numerous boarding schools and has expressed violent tendencies in the past.

Police would not say whether son Percy and friend Hinata are suspects in his mother's disappearance, but they have not ruled out foul play. Below are recent pictures of Sally Jackson, Percy and Hinata Hyuga. Police urge anyone with information to call the following toll-free crime-stoppers hotline.

The phone number was circled in black marker.

I wadded up the paper and threw it away, then flopped down in my bunk bed in the middle of my empty cabin.

"Lights out," I told myself miserably. That night, I had my worst dream yet.

I was running along the beach in a storm. This time, there was a city behind me. Not New York. The sprawl was different: buildings spread farther apart, palm trees and low hills in the distance.

About a hundred yards down the surf, two men were fighting. They looked like TV wrestlers, muscular, with beards and long hair. Both wore flowing Greek tunics, one trimmed in blue, the other in green. They grappled with each other, wrestled, kicked and head-butted, and every time they connected, lightning flashed, the sky grew darker, and the wind rose.

I had to stop them. I didn't know why. But the harder I ran, the more the wind blew me back, until I was running in place, my heels digging uselessly in the sand.

Over the roar of the storm, I could hear the blue-robed one yelling at the green-robed one, Give it back! Give it back! Like a kindergartner fighting over a toy.

The waves got bigger, crashing into the beach, spraying me with salt.

I yelled, Stop it! Stop fighting!

The ground shook. Laughter came from somewhere under the earth, and a voice so deep and evil it turned my blood to ice.

Come down, little hero, the voice crooned. Come down!

The sand split beneath me, opening up a crevice straight down to the center of the earth. My feet slipped, and darkness swallowed me.

I woke up, sure I was falling.

I was still in bed in cabin three. My body told me it was morning, but it was dark outside, and thunder rolled across the hills. A storm was brewing. I hadn't dreamed that.

I heard a clopping sound at the door, a hoof knocking on the threshold.

"Come in?"

Grover trotted inside, looking worried. "Mr. D wants to see you and Hinata."

"Why?"

"He wants to kill... I mean, I'd better let him tell you guys."

"Ok, I'll go ahead first and meet you guys there"

His color faded a bit "I'm...too scared to go alone. So I was hoping..."

"Dude, this is Hinata we're talking about. She wouldn't hurt you."

"Blaa-ha-ha! You know how her temper is! You saw how she acted when I told you guys about the camp. She looked like she was ready to kill someone!"

I couldn't deny that. Hinata would get physical when she's really (and I mean REALLY) mad, I'm lucky she takes it out on objects more than people or I'd be holding her back 24/7.

"Percy, you're the only one, besides Chiron, who can talk to her when she's like this. Beside I'm worried about her, it's been days and she still hasn't come out."

"Believe me, I'm been worried since that night. But no matter how many times we try, she won't listen."

"Well can you try again, please?" Grover pleaded with his hands pressed together like he was praying "She needs the fresh air and Mr.D is not the most patient god."

I sighed "Ok, let's go."

Nervously, I got dressed and followed him to her cabin, while thinking sure that we were in huge trouble.

For days, I'd been half expecting a summons to the Big House. Now that I was declared a son of Poseidon, one of the Big Three gods who weren't supposed to have kids, I figured it was a crime for me just to be alive. The other gods had probably been debating the best way to punish me for existing, and now Mr. D was ready to deliver their verdict.

Looking in front of me, I saw that we had arrived at Cabin 13. Before it looked plain and boring but now the cabin was white marble that looked like it was covered in gold glitter. There were carvings of sun in the middle and different birds on each side of it : the left is crow, one of Apollo's sacred animals and the right was a dove, Aphrodite's animal. The columns were wrapped in gold vines with gold colored flowers. As I got closer, I could see carvings of a lyre and heart on the door.

I stared in awe "Wow, when did this happened?"

"Like I said, when a child is claimed, characteristics of the parents show on the cabin." Grover replied

"Ok but I'm seeing more of Apollo than Aphrodite."

He points to the left side of the cabin. I saw three bushes of roses, each bush a different color: pink, red and yellow.

"I see it now."

"Ok, now that we've had a look of her cabin" He said giving me a gentle push towards the door "I'll be right here for support while you go and get her."

"Are you sure you're not part chicken too?"

"Blaa-ha-ha! Just go!"

I went and knocked on the door. I waited but there was no answer, so I tried again but knocked a bit harder. Still no answer, really? Just when I was about to knock again, I heard her voice through the door "Percy, what do you want?"

"How do you know it's me?"

I could almost hear her rolling her eyes "I could hear you and Grover outside the door. Now I'll ask again, what is it?"

"Mr.D wants to see us."

"Well that's too bad because I'm still not coming out."

I sighed "Hinata..."

"Don't Hinata me!" She yelled "I'm not coming out and that's-"

"I miss you"

I felt my cheeks turning red after I said that but I was telling the truth. Thinking back on it, this was actually the longest time we spent apart. Every since we became friend, we've been inseparable. The only time we didn't hang out was when her parents force her to go to their as she says 'boring business parties'.

She stopped what she saying before, her voice turned soft with confusion "You miss me?"

"Yeah..." I cursed under my voice when I heard my voice cracking. I cleared my throat "I mean, I know you're struggling with all this but you're not the only one. I mean, ever since that night the other campers have avoided me, I sit at a table all by myself and training with Luke is even more brutal than before. Without my best friend- "

"Hey!" Grover protested

"...Ok my best friend that is a girl with me, it's been depressing."

There was silence between us after that. Maybe she still thought she had it harder. Before I could say anything else, she came out and pulled me into a tight hug. It took me a minute to register what was going on.

"I'm so sorry, Perce" I heard her whisper "I didn't know...I would have..."

Her voice was shaky, like she was about to cry and I didn't want that.

"Hey, hey it's ok" I returned the hug and held her tightly "You wouldn't do this on purpose, so I'm not mad. I was just worried about you and so was Chiron and Grover."

She looked up from my shoulder and stared at Grover like a sad puppy dog.

"I'm sorry, guys.." She whimpered

"It's ok" Grover got closer and pat her hand "We'll help you through it, ok?"

She sighed and rest her head on my shoulder "Fine, I guess it's better to cope with friends than alone."

She breaks our hug and wipe the unsheathed tears out her eyes "Let's go, I have to apologize to Chiron anyway."

As we walked over to the Big House, over Long Island Sound, the sky looked like ink soup coming to a boil. A hazy curtain of rain was coming in our direction. I asked Grover if we needed an umbrella.

"No," he said. "It never rains here unless we want it to."

I pointed at the storm. "What the heck is that, then?"

He glanced uneasily at the sky. "It'll pass around us. Bad weather always does."

I realized he was right. In the week I'd been here, it had never even been overcast. The few rain clouds I'd seen had skirted right around the edges of the valley.

But this storm ... this one was huge.

"Don't be too sure" Hinata mutter under her breath

At the volleyball pit, the kids from Apollo's cabin were playing a morning game against the satyrs. Dionysus's twins were walking around in the strawberry fields, making the plants grow. Everybody was going about their normal business, but they looked tense. They kept their eyes on the storm.

Grover, Hinata and I walked up to the front porch of the Big House. Dionysus sat at the pinochle table in his tiger-striped Hawaiian shirt with his Diet Coke, just as he had on my first day. Chiron sat across the table in his fake wheel-chair. They were playing against invisible opponents-two sets of cards hovering in the air.

"Well, well," Mr. D said without looking up. "Our little celebrities."

We waited.

"Come closer," Mr. D said. "And don't expect me to kowtow to you two, mortals, just because old Barnacle Beard, Chariot Man and Aphrodite are your parents."

A net of lightning flashed across the clouds. Thunder shook the windows of the house. "Blah, blah, blah," Dionysus said.

Chiron feigned interest in his pinochle cards. Grover cowered by the railing, his hooves clopping back and forth.

"If I had my way," Dionysus said, "I would cause both your molecules to erupt in flames. We'd sweep up the ashes and be done with a lot of trouble. But Chiron seems to feel this would be against my mission at this cursed camp: to keep you little brats safe from harm."

"Spontaneous combustion is a form of harm, Mr. D," Chiron put in.

"Nonsense," Dionysus said. "They wouldn't feel a thing. Nevertheless, I've agreed to restrain myself I'm thinking of turning you-"

He pointed to me "into a dolphin and..."

He pointed to Hinata "you into a dove instead, sending you both back to your mother and father."

"Mr. D-" Chiron warned.

"Oh, all right," Dionysus relented. "There's one more option. But it's deadly foolishness." Dionysus rose, and the invisible players' cards dropped to the table. "I'm off to Olympus for the emergency meeting. If they are still here when I get back, I'll turn them into an Atlantic bottlenose and a swan. Do you understand? And Perseus Jackson, Hinata Hyuga, if you two are at all smart, you'll see that's a much more sensible choice than what Chiron feels you must do."

Dionysus picked up a playing card, twisted it, and it became a plastic rectangle. A credit card? No. A security pass.

He snapped his fingers.

The air seemed to fold and bend around him. He became a hologram, then a wind, then he was gone, leaving only the smell of fresh-pressed grapes lingering behind.

In an instant, Hinata rushes into Chiron's arms and starts apologizing for worrying him. He pats her back, telling her he's not mad and makes her sit next to him.

Chiron smiled at me, but he looked tired and strained. "Sit, Percy, please. And Grover."

We did.

Chiron laid his cards on the table, a winning hand he hadn't gotten to use.

He waves his hand and a plate of fruit and nuts were in front of Hinata. He takes a cup and mutters a drink. The cup fulled with green liquid and he sets it next to her.

"Chiron-" he cut her off

"You haven't eaten in days, my dear. I can't have you starving, not when you'll need all your strength."

She nods and starts eating. He smiled at her and then looked at the both of us.

"Tell me, Percy, Hinata" he said. "What did you make of the hellhound?"

Just hearing the name made me shudder.

Chiron probably wanted me to say, Heck, it was nothing. I eat hellhounds for breakfast. But I didn't feel like lying.

"It scared me," I said. "If Hinata hadn't blast it, I'd be dead."

"I was scared too," she paused from eating "I thought I was going to lose my best friend."

He sighed sadly "Unfortunately my dear, you'll be facing that thought more than once. You two will meet worse, Far worse, before you're done."

"Done ... with what?" I asked

"Your quest, of course. Will you accept it?"

Hinata and I shared a look then we glanced at Grover, who was crossing his fingers.

"Um, sir," Hinata said, "you haven't informed us of anything yet. We'd like an know details "

Chiron grimaced. "Well, that's the hard part, the details."

Thunder rumbled across the valley. The storm clouds had now reached the edge of the beach. As far as I could see, the sky and the sea were boiling together.

"Poseidon and Zeus," I said. "They're fighting over something valuable ... something that was stolen, aren't they? And while he's fighting my dad, Zeus is arguing with Apollo and Aphrodite too, right?"

Chiron and Grover exchanged looks.

Chiron sat forward in his wheelchair. "How did you know that?"

My face felt hot. I wished I hadn't opened my big mouth. "The weather since Christmas has been weird, like the sea and the sky are fighting. Then I talked to Annabeth, and she'd overheard something about a theft. And ... I've also been having these dreams."

"Perce, did your dream involve a eagle and a horse fighting, then a crow squawking angrily at the eagle?" Hinata asked

"You had that dream too?" I didn't know we were having the same dream, I would have talked to her about them.

"I knew it," Grover said. "Hush, satyr," Chiron ordered.

"But it is their quest!" Grover's eyes were bright with excitement. "It must be!"

"Only the Oracle can determine." Chiron stroked his bristly beard. "Nevertheless, Percy, you are correct. Your father and Zeus are having their worst quarrel in centuries. They are fighting over something valuable that was stolen. To be precise: a lightning bolt."

I laughed nervously. "A what?"

"Do not take this lightly," Chiron warned. "I'm not talking about some tinfoil-covered zigzag you'd see in a second-grade play. I'm talking about a two-foot-long cylinder of high-grade celestial bronze, capped on both ends with god-level explosives."

"Oh."

"Zeus's master bolt," Chiron said, getting worked up now. "The symbol of his power, from which all other light-ning bolts are patterned. The first weapon made by the Cyclopes for the war against the Titans, the bolt that sheered the top off Mount Etna and hurled Kronos from his throne; the master bolt, which packs enough power to make mortal hydrogen bombs look like firecrackers."

"And it's missing?"

"Stolen," Chiron said.

"By who?"

"By whom," Chiron corrected. Once a teacher, always a teacher. "By you and Hinata."

My mouth fell open.

"EXCUSE ME?!" Hinata yelled, slamming her hand against the table.

"At least"-Chiron held up a hand-"that's what Zeus thinks. During the winter solstice, at the last council of the gods, Zeus and Poseidon had an argument. The usual nonsense: 'Mother Rhea always liked you best,' Air dis-asters are more spectacular than sea disasters,' et cetera. Afterward, Zeus realized his master bolt was missing, taken from the throne room under his very nose. He immediately blamed Poseidon. Now, a god cannot usurp another god's symbol of power directly that is forbidden by the most ancient of divine laws. But Zeus believes your father convinced a human hero to take it."

"But we didn't-"

"Patience and listen, child," Chiron said. "Zeus has good reason to be suspicious. The forges of the Cyclopes are under the ocean, which gives Poseidon some influence over the makers of his brother's lightning. Zeus believes Poseidon has taken the master bolt, and is now secretly having the Cyclopes build an arsenal of illegal copies, which might be used to topple Zeus from his throne. The only thing Zeus wasn't sure about was which hero Poseidon used to steal the bolt. Now Poseidon has openly claimed you as his son. You were in New York over the winter holidays. You two could easily have snuck into Olympus. Zeus believes he has found his thief."

Hinata made a T with her hands "Ok, time out for a second. All I am hearing are reasons why Zeus think Percy stole the bolt, which is a load of bull-"

"Hinata!"

"Hey, I'm still upset, so I should be entitled to say it!"

He shook his head, looking at the sky nervously and giving her a pleading look.

She huffed "Fine, anyway why does he think I stole the bolt too? This sounds like it's between brothers and I am the daughter to neither one of them."

Chiron looked at me and her "You two are very close, right?"

We glanced at each other and smiled, nodding.

"You have no idea, it's almost impossible to keep these two away from each other." Grover muttered

I blushed and she wasn't far behind me. We're best friends, of course we'll spend a lot of time together, right?

Chiron was getting worked up again "Despite being Zeus' son, Apollo has alway preferred your father, Percy. He has gotten along with him more than with his own father. Especially after what he said was a misunderstanding."

"What was a misunderstanding?"

He shook his head "The point is due to that and your friendship with Percy, Zeus suspects, your father, Apollo is also involved with the disappearance of his bolt."

"He is not my father!" She shouted, making everyone flinch in their seats.

She took a minute to calm down before speaking "This is stupid! We didn't even know we were demigods at the time!"

"Yeah and besides we've never even been to Olympus! Zeus is crazy!" I added

Chiron and Grover glanced nervously at the sky. The clouds didn't seem to be parting around us, as Grover had promised. They were rolling straight over our valley, sealing us in like a coffin lid.

"Er, Percy ...?" Grover said. "We don't use the c-word to describe the Lord of the Sky."

"I've got other words we can use." Hinata muttered

"Young lady" Chiron warned

She glared angrily at her unfinished plate.

"Perhaps paranoid," Chiron suggested. "Then again, Poseidon has tried to unseat Zeus before. I believe that was question thirty-eight on your final exam..." He looked at me as if he actually expected me to remember question thirty-eight.

How could anyone accuse us of stealing a god's weapon? I couldn't even steal a slice of pizza from Gabe's poker party without getting busted. Chiron was waiting for an answer.

"Something about a golden net?" I guessed. "Poseidon and Hera and a few other gods ... they, like, trapped Zeus and wouldn't let him out until he promised to be a better ruler, right?"

Hinata eyes widened "So that was the misunderstanding! I remember from our studies that Apollo and Poseidon planned it together and convinced some of the other gods to help."

"Correct," Chiron said. "And Zeus has never trusted Poseidon and Apollo since, well more Poseidon than Apollo. But of course, Poseidon denies stealing the master bolt, while Apollo denies any involvement with it. Poseidon took great offense at the accusation. The two have been arguing back and forth for months, threaten-ing war. And now, you two come along the proverbial last straw."

"But we're just kids!"

"Guys," Grover cut in, "if you were Zeus, and you already thought your brother and son was plotting to overthrow you, then your brother suddenly admitted he had broken the sacred oath he took after World War II, that he and his nephew fathered new mortal heroes who might be used as a weapon against you... Wouldn't that put a twist in your toga?"

"But we didn't do anything. Poseidon-my dad-he didn't really have this master bolt stolen, did he?"

Chiron sighed. "Most thinking observers would agree that thievery is not Poseidon's style. But the Sea God is too proud to try convincing Zeus of that. Zeus has demanded that Poseidon return the bolt by the summer solstice. That's June twenty-first, ten days from now. Poseidon wants an apology for being called a thief by the same date. I hoped that diplomacy might prevail, that Hera or Demeter or Hestia would make the two brothers see sense. But your arrival has inflamed Zeus's temper. Now neither god will back down. Unless someone intervenes, unless the master bolt is found and returned to Zeus before the solstice, there will be war. And do you know what a full-fledged war would look like, Percy?"

"Bad?" I guessed.

"Imagine the world in chaos. Nature at war with itself. Olympians forced to choose sides between Zeus and Poseidon. Destruction. Carnage. Millions dead. Western civilization turned into a battleground so big it will make the Trojan War look like a water-balloon fight."

"Bad," I repeated.

"Very, very bad" Hinata added

"And you, Percy Jackson and Hinata Hyuga, would be the first ones to feel Zeus's wrath."

Hinata laid her head on her folded arms.

"Wonderful." She muttered, sarcastically.

It started to rain. Volleyball players stopped their game and stared in stunned silence at the sky.

I had brought this storm to Half-Blood Hill. Zeus was punishing the whole camp because of me. I was furious.

"It's not your fault, Perce. "

I looked at my best friend, doubtfully "All of Zeus fights are with Poseidon, not Apollo. Because of me, because of our friendship, you got pulled into this."

She picked up her head "No, this happened because thunderhead thinks this is another plot to overthrow him. He was looking for someone to blame and suspected Poseidon and Apollo. If anyone is to blame, it's the real thief."

Chiron looked up to the sky "Regardless of how it happened, it happened and sadly you two must fix it."

"So we have to find the stupid bolt," I said. "And return it to Zeus."

"What better peace offering," Chiron said, "than to have the son of Poseidon and-" he hesitated for a moment "his granddaughter return Zeus's property?"

"If neither Poseidon nor Apollo have it, then where is the thing?"

"I believe I know." Chiron's expression was grim. "Part of a prophecy I had years ago ... well, some of the lines make sense to me, now. But before I can say more, you must officially take up the quest. You two must seek the counsel of the Oracle."

"Why can't you tell us where the bolt is beforehand?"

"Because if I did, you would be too afraid to accept the challenge."

I swallowed. "Good reason."

"Oh come on!" Hinata threw her hands in the air in frustration "We've fought one of the Kindly Ones, the Minotaur, and a bloody hellhound. How much scarier could things get?!"

Chiron sighed sadly "Unfortunately, you'll find out soon enough."

I swallowed, but it was harder to this time.

"You two agree then?"

I looked at Hinata, who was looking at me sighed running her fingers through her hair.

"I'm not about to do a favor for my so called 'father' or 'mother'.." She said the words as though she spat on them. "But I won't be called a thief either. If this is the only way to clear our names, then so be it."

I looked at Grover, who nodded encouragingly.

Easy for him. We were the ones Zeus wanted to kill.

"All right," I said. "It's better than being turned into a dolphin."

"Then it's time you two consulted the Oracle," Chiron said. "Go upstairs, Percy Jackson, Hinata Hyuga, to the attic. When you come back down, assuming you're still sane, we will talk more."

Four flights up, the stairs ended under a green trap-door.

Hinata and I pulled the cord. The door swung down, and a wooden ladder clattered into place.

The warm air from above smelled like mildew and rotten wood and something else ... a smell I remembered from biology class. Reptiles. The smell of snakes.

"That reeks!" Hinata coughed, covering her nose

"The sooner we do this, the sooner we can get out."

With that said, I held my breath and we climbed.

The attic was filled with Greek hero junk: armor stands covered in cobwebs; once-bright shields pitted with rust; old leather steamer trunks plastered with stickers saying ITHAKA, CIRCE'S ISLE, and LAND OF THE AMAZONS. One long table was stacked with glass jars filled with pickled things-severed hairy claws, huge yellow eyes, various other parts of monsters. A dusty mounted trophy on the wall looked like a giant snake's head, but with horns and a full set of shark's teeth. The plaque read, HYDRA HEAD #1, WOODSTOCK, N.Y., 1969.

I bumped into something when I wasn't looking and that something was Hinata. She was pale and had a look of fear on her face. When I was about to ask what was wrong, she pointed to what she was staring at.

By the window, sitting on a wooden tripod stool, was the most gruesome memento of all: a mummy. Not the wrapped-in-cloth kind, but a human female body shriveled to a husk. She wore a tie-dyed sundress, lots of beaded necklaces, and a headband over long black hair. The skin of her face was thin and leathery over her skull, and her eyes were glassy white slits, as if the real eyes had been replaced by marbles; she'd been dead a long, long time.

I could see why Hinata reacted this way, looking at her sent chills up my back. And that was before she sat up on her stool and opened her mouth. A green mist poured from the mummy's mouth, coiling over the floor in thick tendrils, hissing like twenty thousand snakes. I stumbled over myself to grab Hinata and try getting to the trap-door, but it slammed shut. Inside my head, I heard a voice, slithering into one ear and coiling around my brain: I am the spirit of Delphi, speaker of the prophecies of Phoebus Apollo, slayer of the mighty Python. Approach, seeker, and ask.

I wanted to say, No thanks, wrong door, just looking for the bathroom. But I forced myself to take a deep breath.

The mummy wasn't alive. She was some kind of grue-some receptacle for something else, the power that was now swirling around me in the green mist. But its presence didn't feel evil, like my demonic math teacher Mrs. Dodds or the Minotaur. It felt more like the Three Fates I'd seen knitting the yarn outside the highway fruit stand: ancient, powerful, and definitely not human. But not particularly interested in killing me, either.

I looked over at Hinata, who was shaking her head, "You do it."

I got up the courage to ask, "What is our destiny?"

The mist swirled more thickly, collecting right in front of us and around the table with the pickled monster-part jars. Suddenly there were four men sitting around the table, playing cards. Their faces became clearer. It was Smelly Gabe and his buddies.

My fists clenched, though I knew this poker party couldn't be real. It was an illusion, made out of mist.

Gabe turned toward us and spoke in the rasping voice of the Oracle: You shall go west, and face the god who has turned.

His buddy on the right looked up and said in the same voice: You shall find what was stolen, and see it safely returned.

The guy on the left threw in two poker chips, then said: You shall he betrayed by one who calls you a friend.

Finally, Eddie, our building super, delivered the worst line of all: And you shall fail to save what matters most, in the end.

The figures began to dissolve. At first I was too stunned to say anything, but as the mist retreated, coiling into a huge green serpent and slithering back into the mouth of the mummy, I cried, "Wait! What do you mean? What friend? What will I fail to save?"

The tail of the mist snake disappeared into the mummy's mouth. She reclined back against the wall. Her mouth closed tight, as if it hadn't been open in a hundred years. The attic was silent again, abandoned, nothing but a room full of mementos.

I got the feeling that I could stand here until I had cobwebs, too, and I wouldn't learn anything else.

Our audience with the Oracle was over.

"Perce?" Hinata called, reaching for my shoulder.

I grabbed her hand and squeezed gently "Let's get out of here."

"Well?" Chiron asked me.

We slumped into the chairs at the pinochle table, my hand still in hers.

After that experience, I wasn't ready to let go yet.

"She said we would retrieve what was stolen."

Grover sat forward, chewing excitedly on the remains of a Diet Coke can. "That's great!"

"What did the Oracle say exactly?" Chiron pressed. "This is important."

My ears were still tingling from the reptilian voice. "She . .. she said we would go west and face a god who had turned. We would retrieve what was stolen and see it safely returned."

"I knew it," Grover said.

Chiron didn't look satisfied. "Anything else?"

I squeezed Hinata's hand when she was about to speak.

I didn't want to tell him.

What friend would betray us? I didn't have that many.

And the last line-I would fail to save what mattered most. What kind of Oracle would send me on a quest and tell me, Oh, by the way, you'll fail

How could I confess that? "No," I said. "That's about it."

Hinata gave me a glance and I gave her one back, silently begging her not to tell him

"He's right, just those two things." She said

He studied our faces. "Very well, you two. But know this: the Oracle's words often have double meanings. Don't dwell on them too much. The truth is not always clear until events come to pass."

I got the feeling he knew we were holding back something bad, and he was trying to make us, well me, feel better.

"Okay," I said, anxious to change topics. "So where do we go? Who's this god in the west?"

"Ah, think, Percy," Chiron said. "If Zeus and Poseidon weaken each other in a war, who stands to gain?"

"Somebody else who wants to take over?" I guessed.

"Yes, quite. Someone who harbors a grudge, who has been unhappy with his lot since the world was divided eons ago, whose kingdom would grow powerful with the deaths of millions. Someone who hates his brothers for forcing him into an oath to have no more children, an oath that both of them have now broken."

I thought about my dreams, the evil voice that had spoken from under the ground.

"Hades." Hinata said, looking at him "You think Hades took the bolt?"

Chiron nodded. "The Lord of the Dead is the only possibility."

A scrap of aluminum dribbled out of Grover's mouth. "Whoa, wait. Wh-what?"

"A Fury came after them," Chiron reminded him. "She watched these two until she was sure of their identities, then tried to kill them. Furies obey only one lord: Hades."

"Yes, but-but Hades hates all heroes," Grover protested. "Especially if he has found out Percy is a son of Poseidon... ."

"A hellhound got into the forest," Chiron continued. "Those can only be summoned from the Fields of Pun-ishment, and it had to be summoned by someone within the camp. Hades must have a spy here. He must suspect Poseidon and Apollo will try to use Percy and Hinata to clear their names. Hades would very much like to kill these young half-bloods before they can take on the quest."

"Great," I muttered. "That's two major gods who want to kill us."

"Finding out my parentage just gets better and better." She sarcastically grumbled

"But a quest to ..." Grover swallowed. "I mean, couldn't the master bolt be in some place like Maine? Maine's very nice this time of year."

"Hades sent a minion to steal the master bolt," Chiron insisted. "He hid it in the Underworld, knowing full well that Zeus would blame Poseidon. I don't pretend to understand the Lord of the Dead's motives perfectly, or why he chose this time to start a war, but one thing is certain. Percy and Hinata must go to the Underworld, find the master bolt, and reveal the truth."

A strange fire burned in my stomach. The weirdest thing was: it wasn't fear. It was anticipation. The desire for revenge. Hades had tried to kill us three times so far, with the Fury, the Minotaur, and the hellhound. It was his fault my mother had disappeared in a flash of light. It was his fault that Hinata got hurt. Now he was trying to frame us and our dads for a theft we hadn't committed.

I was ready to take him on.

Besides, if my mother was in the Underworld ...

Whoa, boy, said the small part of my brain that was still sane. You're a kid. Hades is a god.

Hinata was staring at the table. She looked deep in thought, like she was trying to figure out something.

Grover was trembling. He'd started eating pinochle cards like potato chips.

The poor guy needed to complete a quest with us so he could get his searcher's license, whatever that was, but how could I ask him to do this quest, especially when the Oracle said I was destined to fail? This was suicide.

"Look, if we know it's Hades," I told Chiron, "why can't we just tell the other gods? Zeus or Poseidon could go down to the Underworld and bust some heads."

"My guess" Hinata said "is that they don't have enough evidences."

"Well you are partially right, my dear. Suspecting and knowing are not the same," Chiron said. "Besides, even if the other gods suspect Hades and I imagine Poseidon does they couldn't retrieve the bolt themselves. Gods cannot cross each other's territories except by invitation. That is another ancient rule. Heroes, on the other hand, have certain privileges. They can go anywhere, challenge anyone, as long as they're bold enough and strong enough to do it. No god can be held responsible for a hero's actions. Why do you think the gods always operate through humans?"

"You're saying we're being used."

"No!" He said quickly, glancing at Hinata "I'm saying that it's no accident Poseidon and the others has claimed you two now. It's a very risky gamble, but he's in a desperate situation. They need you both."

My dad needs me.

Emotions rolled around inside me like bits of glass in a kaleidoscope. I didn't know whether to feel resentful, like Hinata, or grateful or happy or angry. Poseidon had ignored me for twelve years. Now suddenly he needed me.

I looked at Chiron. "You've known I was Poseidon's son all along, haven't you?"

"I had my suspicions. As I said ... I've spoken to the Oracle, too."

"So what about me?" Hinata asked "Did the Oracle say something about me too?"

"Yes but that's not how knew."

She furrowed her brows in confusion.

He gave her a warm smile "Apollo told me about you."

Her eyes widen almost as wide as Grover's.

"But t-that can't be true! I've never heard of any God coming to you about their child."

"That is because Apollo was the first god to do so. It was about five years ago, he came to me in secret and told me he had a daughter, one that was different from the rest but also very special. He asked me to be on the look out for her and take very good care of her."

I looked at Hinata. She was biting her bottom lip, trying to process everything Chiron was saying. She had all this anger toward her godly parents but they, or Apollo, were actually the first gods to come down and personal ask Chiron to keep their child safe.

She looked up and saw everyone was looking at her, waiting for her response. So, she folded her arms against her chest and turned away from us "Knowing that d-doesn't change a thing."

She's being stubborn, but I could tell she was thinking of him.

"Chiron, what actually did the Oracle say about us?"

"Only hint...to who your parents are."'

I got the feeling there was a lot he wasn't telling me about his prophecy, but I decided I couldn't worry about that right now. After all, I was holding back information too.

"So let me get this straight," I said. "Me and Hinata supposed go to the Underworld and confront the Lord of the Dead."

"Check," Chiron said.

"Find the most powerful weapon in the universe."

"Check."

"And get it back to Olympus before the summer solstice, in ten days."

"That's about right."

I looked at Grover, who gulped down the ace of hearts.

"Did I mention that Maine is very nice this time of year?" he asked weakly.

"You don't have to go," I told him. "I can't ask that of you."

"He's right." Hinata spoke up "This is our problem and I would never forgive myself if you got severely hurt because of us."

"Oh ..." He shifted his hooves. "No ... it's just that satyrs and underground places ... well..."

He took a deep breath, then stood, brushing the shredded cards and aluminum bits off his T-shirt. "You saved my life, guys. If ... if you're serious about wanting me along, I won't let you two down."

Hinata got up from her seat and gave him a one side hug "Thank you, I get the feeling you'll be a big help."

I felt so relieved I wanted to cry, though I didn't think that would be very heroic. Grover was one of the only friends I'd ever had for longer than a few months. I wasn't sure what good a satyr could do against the forces of the dead, but I felt better knowing he'd be with us.

"All the way, G-man." I turned to Chiron. "So where do we go? The Oracle just said to go west."

"The entrance to the Underworld is always in the west. It moves from age to age, just like Olympus. Right now, of course, it's in America."

"Where?"

Chiron looked surprised. "I thought that would be obvious enough. The entrance to the Underworld is in Los Angeles."

"How is that obvious?" Hinata muttered

"Oh," I said. "Naturally. So we just get on a plane-"

"No!" Grover shrieked. "Percy, what are you thinking? Have you ever been on a plane in your life?"

I shook my head, feeling embarrassed. My mom had never taken me anywhere by plane. She'd always said we didn't have the money. Besides, her parents had died in a plane crash.

"Percy, think," Chiron said. "You are the son of the Sea God. Your father's bitterest rival is Zeus, Lord of the Sky. Your mother knew better than to trust you in an airplane. You would be in Zeus's domain. You would never come down again alive."

Overhead, lightning crackled. Thunder boomed.

"Okay," I said, determined not to look at the storm. "So, I'll travel overland."

Hinata held her hand up like she was in class again

"Yes, Hinata?"

"Don't you think he can make an exception? After all, we are getting back his bolt and since Apollo is the sun god, I'm technically allowed in the sky. Percy can be like my guest or something."

"While I do agreed you have a right to take to the sky. considering he thinks you are an accomplice in this, I'd feel comfortable if you took the safest option."

She sighed in defeat "So overland, then?"

"That's correct," Chiron said. "Three is a sacred, so three are required for a quest. Grover is one. The other has already volunteered, but-"

In an instant, Hinata lunged toward and grabbed something in the air. A yelp was heard and the air shimmered in front of her. Annabeth became visible, looking between her Yankees cap and Hinata.

"H-How?"

She twirled the cap with her finger "When my training began, the first thing I learned is how to conceal myself and sniff out my enemies."

"But I was so quiet!"

"My hearing's really good, wise girl. Even when we were talking, I still heard your footsteps."

Grover muttered in my ear "I'm so glad she's coming with us"

It not like she has a choice but I agreed with him. If I had to pick anyone to go a super dangerous, life threatening quest with, I'd alway pick Hinata.

Annabeth huffed, snatching her cap back and putting it in her pocket.

"Look, I've been waiting a long time for a quest, sunshine," she said. "Athena is no fan of Poseidon, but if you two are going to save the world, I'm the best person to keep you and seaweed brain from messing up."

Hinata crossed her arms "Is that right? And I suppose you have a plan?"

Her cheeks colored. "Do you want my help or not?"

"Luckily, no we don't need your help."

Uh-oh

By the bright red coloring and angry scowl on Annabeth's face, Grover and I made the smart choice and moved five paces back. Two girls fighting is one thing but two demigod girls is a different story.

"What do you mean 'No'?!"

Hinata said with a blank look "Well there are many ways to say no: nada, nyet, nein, and no way. Different ways but they all mean the same thing."

"Don't patronize me! I know what no means!"

Chiron stepped in "That's enough, girls. Hinata is correct, Annabeth. You cannot go."

"B-But why not?!"

Hinata spoke "It's like Chiron said 'Three is a sacred number', so only three can go. And we already have three people going."

She points to herself, Grover and me.

"But I'm more experienced than anyone in this group. I've got the knowledge and the fighting skills needed. You need me!"

"You're not the only one whose been training since you were little. I've got just as much fighting skill as you do."

"And the knowledge?"

"You can ask Chiron on that"

Chiron looked uncomfortable when the girls turned to him "Well you were my best student and what I've taught you was to prepare you and Percy for this. You still much to learn but I believe you'll be fine."

I thought that would be the end of it, but Annabeth wasn't backing down.

"Chiron, can't she stay and I go with the other? I mean come on all they'll be doing is just gazing into each others eyes, holding hands and kissing like lovebirds. They'll be a distraction to each other."

Grover was snickering besides me and I didn't know whose face was more red: mine or Hinata's?

"How many times am I going to tell people?! We are just friends!" Hinata shouted "Besides we work well together and this is about life and death for us, so trust me we'll be focused!"

Annabeth saw that we already made up our minds and bowed her head in defeat.

"The last quest that came, I was too young to go and that was five years ago. This is the first quest in all that time, am I suppose to wait another five years to prove myself?"

I felt bad for her, she's been here since she was seven and this would have been her chance to leave the camp and put her skills to the test.

"Annabeth, can I talk to you in private?"

I looked over at Hinata "What are you-"

"Don't follow us"

She took her hand and dragged her inside the Big House and shut the door. I could hear them talking but couldn't make out the words. I turned to Grover and asked if he could make out what they're saying. He shook his head.

"You think they'll be ok in there alone?"

Chiron turned our way then back at the door "I'm sure they'll be fine...at least that what I hope."

Five minutes past and the door opens. Both girls walked out, Hinata gave Annabeth a small but caring smile and pat her on the shoulder. She had a hopeful look in her eyes and nodded.

"I'll go put together some information you'll need on your quest."

With that said, she ran off to the cabins.

We looked at Hinata, waiting for an explanation but she just smiled

"We worked in out."

I was confused but nervous "So, you'll be coming too?"

She walked up to me and locked her arm in mine "This is our problem, so we'll solve it together."

I was so relieved

"Okay! A trio," I said. "That'll work."

"Excellent," Chiron said. "This afternoon, we can take you as far as the bus terminal in Manhattan. After that, you are on your own."

Lightning flashed. Rain poured down on the meadows that were never supposed to have violent weather.

"No time to waste," Chiron said. "I think you should all get packing."


	11. I Ruin a Perfectly Good Bus

It didn't take me long to pack. I decided to leave the Minotaur horn in my cabin, which left me only an extra change of clothes and a toothbrush to stuff in a backpack Grover had found for me.

The camp store loaned me one hundred dollars in mortal money and twenty golden drachmas. These coins were as big as Girl Scout cookies and had images of various Greek gods stamped on one side and the Empire State Building on the other. The ancient mortal drachmas had been silver, Chiron told us, but Olympians never used less than pure gold. Chiron said the coins might come in handy for non-mortal transactions-whatever that meant. He gave Hinata and me each a canteen of nectar and a Ziploc bag full of ambrosia squares, to be used only in emergencies, if we were seriously hurt. It was god food, Chiron reminded us. It would cure us of almost any injury, but it was lethal to mortals. Too much of it would make a half-blood very, very feverish. An overdose would burn us up, literally. After hearing that, Hinata took my nectar and ambrosia and stuffed it in her bag.

She said "It makes sense for the person who has some medical knowledge to carry them."

She was also bringing her ninja knife, which she never leaves home without. She carried extra clothes and a tooth brush like me. Annabeth came and gave her a very thick book on every monster, God and etc she knew, written in Ancient Greek, to help us on our quest. I was sure that if Hinata couldn't memorize it, she could just throw it at a monster.

Grover wore his fake feet and his pants to pass as human. He wore a green rasta-style cap, because when it rained his curly hair flattened and you could just see the tips of his horns. His bright orange backpack was full of scrap metal and apples to snack on. In his pocket was a set of reed pipes his daddy goat had carved for him, even though he only knew two songs: Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 12 and Hilary Duff's "So Yesterday," both of which sounded pretty bad on reed pipes.

We waved good-bye to the other campers, took one last look at the strawberry fields, the ocean, and the Big House, then hiked up Half-Blood Hill to the tall pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus.

Chiron was waiting for us in his wheelchair. Next to him stood the surfer dude I'd seen when I was recovering in the sick room. According to Grover, the guy was the camp's head of security. He supposedly had eyes all over his body so he could never be surprised. Today, though, he was wearing a chauffeur's uniform, so I could only see extra peepers on his hands, face and neck.

"This is Argus," Chiron told me. "He will drive you into the city, and, er, well, keep an eye on things." I heard footsteps behind us.

Luke came running up the hill, carrying a pair of basketball shoes.

"Hey!" he panted. "Glad I caught you."

Hinata stepped back slowly, looked at him cautiously. It's been that way ever since Luke kissed her hand.

"Just wanted to say good luck," Luke told me. "And I thought ... um, maybe you could use these."

He handed me the sneakers, which looked pretty normal. They even smelled kind of normal.

Hinata forgot about her caution, picked up one of the shoes "Are these what I think they are?!"

Luke grinned, "You better believe it, sweetness! Maia!"

White bird's wings sprouted out of the heels, startling me so much, I dropped the one I was holding. Hinata let go of hers and the shoes flapped around on the ground until the wings folded up and disappeared.

"Wow!" She said

"Awesome!" Grover said.

Luke smiled. "Those served me well when I was on my quest. Gift from Dad. Of course, I don't use them much these days..." His expression turned sad.

I didn't know what to say. It was cool enough that Luke had come to say good-bye. I'd been afraid he might resent me for getting so much attention the last few days. But here he was giving me a magic gift... It made me blush almost as much as Annabeth does when she's around him.

"Hey, man," I said. "Thanks."

"Listen, Percy, Hinata..." Luke looked uncomfortable. "A lot of hopes are riding on you guys. So just ... kill some monsters for me, okay?"

We shook hands. Luke patted Grover's head between his horns. As he got close to Hinata, she stepped back again, giving him a suspicious look.

He pouted "What? All I want to do is give you a good-bye hug."

She narrowed her eyes, as if she was trying to find any lie. She sighed and went up to hug him. I could see he was thinking of something by that mischievous look in his face. Before I could warn her, Luke planted a kiss on her cheek.

"KYAAA!" She shrieked, pushing him away.

"Hey!" I shouted

He just smiled proudly "It's for good luck!"

After Luke was gone, I stood there with different emotions flowed through me. Ever since we came here, I feel like Luke has tried almost every trick in the book to impress Hinata and to be honest, it was really getting on my last nerve. He says he's just being nice, but there is a thing about being too nice.

"I'm gonna kill him!" She hissed, rubbing her kissed cheek.

I'm almost tempted to help her with that.

I heard Grover hiding his chuckles behind his hands.

I picked up the flying shoes and had a sudden bad feeling. I looked at Chiron. "I won't be able to use these, will I?"

He shook his head. "Luke meant well, Percy. But taking to the air ... that would not be wise for you."

I nodded, disappointed, but then I got an idea. "Hinata, would you-"

"No way! I want nothing that pervert gives. He'll probably read into it. Besides, as long as that bolt is missing, I'm not safe in the air either."

She made some good points.

"Hey, Grover. You want a magic item?"

His eyes lit up. "Me?"

Pretty soon we'd laced the sneakers over his fake feet, and the world's first flying goat boy was ready for launch.

"Maia!" he shouted.

He got off the ground okay, but then fell over sideways so his backpack dragged through the grass. The winged shoes kept bucking up and down like tiny broncos.

"Practice," Chiron called after him. "You just need practice!"

"Aaaaa!" Grover went flying sideways down the hill like a possessed lawn mower, heading toward the van.

Before Hinata and I could follow, Chiron caught our arms. "I should have trained you both better," he said. "If only I had more time. Hercules, Jason-they all got more training."

"Chiron, it's ok. I've been trained before, maybe not Greek training but it'll still help." She said

"Even so, I just-"

"That's okay. I just wish-"

I stopped myself because I was about to sound like a brat. I was wishing my dad had given me a cool magic item to help on the quest, something as good as Luke's flying shoes, or Annabeth's invisible cap. Neither me or Hinata got any weapons.

"What am I thinking?" Chiron cried. "I can't let you two get away without these. Percy, you first."

He pulled a pen from his coat pocket and handed it to me. It was an ordinary disposable ballpoint, black ink, removable cap. Probably cost thirty cents.

"Gee," I said. "Thanks."

"Percy, that's a gift from your father. I've kept it for years, not knowing you were who I was waiting for. But the prophecy is clear to me now. You are the one."

I remembered the field trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, when I'd vaporized Mrs. Dodds and saved Hinata. Chiron had thrown me a pen that turned into a sword. Could this be ... ?

I took off the cap, and the pen grew longer and heavier in my hand. In half a second, I held a shimmering bronze sword with a double-edged blade, a leather-wrapped grip, and a flat hilt riveted with gold studs. It was the first weapon that actually felt balanced in my hand.

"Wow" Hinata muttered

"The sword has a long and tragic history that we need not go into," Chiron told me. "Its name is Anaklusmos."

"'Riptide,'" I translated, surprised the Ancient Greek came so easily.

"Use it only for emergencies," Chiron said, "and only against monsters. No hero should harm mortals unless absolutely necessary, of course, but this sword wouldn't harm them in any case."

I looked at the wickedly sharp blade. "What do you mean it wouldn't harm mortals? How could it not?"

"The sword is celestial bronze. Forged by the Cyclopes, tempered in the heart of Mount Etna, cooled in the River Lethe. It's deadly to monsters, to any creature from the Underworld, provided they don't kill you first. But the blade will pass through mortals like an illusion. They simply are not important enough for the blade to kill. And I should warn you: as a demigod, you can be killed by either celestial or normal weapons. You are twice as vulnerable."

"Good to know."

"Now recap the pen."

I touched the pen cap to the sword tip and instantly Riptide shrank to a ballpoint pen again. I tucked it in my pocket, a little nervous, because I was famous for losing pens at school.

"You can't," Chiron said.

"Can't what?"

"Lose the pen," he said. "It is enchanted. It will always reappear in your pocket. Try it."

I was wary, but I threw the pen as far as I could down the hill and watched it disappear in the grass. "It may take a few moments," Chiron told me. "Now check your pocket."

Sure enough, the pen was there.

"Okay, that's extremely cool," I admitted.

"I wish most of the pens I lend you could do that." Hinata said

I grunted "Are you still holding that over my head? I thought you got over that."

"I'm not mad anymore, but thinking about it annoys me."

"I said I was sorry! It's not that big of a deal."

"It was a 5k gold pen you lost! Those don't just grow on trees, ya know!."

I kept my mouth closed after that because I realized I lost a pen that was worth at least half a year of rent for my apartment.

"Children, we are getting off task here." Chiron chuckled

"Sorry" we said

He reached into his coat pocket again and pulled a necklace and a ring. The necklace was made of pure gold and had a bow with an arrow in charm hanging off the chain. It was gorgeous .The ring was a simple but beautiful silver ring with a pink heart shape gem in the center. My pen looked like trash compared to them.

Hinata looked like whether she was thinking about accepting them or throwing them away.

"Chiron, I-I just..."

"My dear, I understand you still have a great dislike of your parents" He said gently "but like I have said before they have their reasons. Apollo gave these to me when he told me about you. These weapons will serve you well."

She sighed heavily "Well...I guess I can use them."

Taking the necklace and ring, she give him a stern look "But this doesn't mean I'll accept them!"

She places the necklace around her neck and the ring on her middle finger "So how do they work?'

"Simply tag on the charm on the necklace."

She did what he said and right before our eyes the charm grow in size and into an actually bow. Unlike my sword, the bow was golden and it seem to suit her perfectly. Except...

"Where are the arrows?" I asked

"It doesn't come with arrows."

"Huh?" That was the only logical thing I could say. I mean what's the point of giving someone a bow if you're not going to give them arrows?

Hinata looked at bow careful before checking her surroundings. I saw her looking a target that was left behind from the archery class. She held the bow in front of her and started pulling its string.

What happened next answered my question.

As she pulled the string, a golden arrow appeared out of nowhere. She let go and naturally it hit it's target.

Chiron looked at the target with an impressed smirk and muttered "You definitely are his daughter."

He turned to her "And to return it to the way it was, hold it to your neck."

As soon as she did, the bow disappeared and the necklace reappeared on her neck.

All I could say was "Awesome"

She took the charm into her hand and stared at it, then up at Chiron "Does it have a name?"

He gently smiled "He hoped you'd name it."

"Haruki"

"That's Japanese, right?" I asked

She nodded "It means living light."

Chiron nodded in approval "An excellent name for it. Now your ring works the same as Annabeth's cap. All you need to do is run your finger over the gem and you'll be invisible. Do it a second time and you'll be visible again."

"Leta"

He paused for a moment, shocked by what she said "You...wish to name it after a Titan?"

She shrugged her shoulders "It fits, after all the name means 'hidden one'. So I thought the name was appropriate."

"I...suppose so."

"But what if a mortal sees us pulling out our weapons?"

Chiron smiled. "Mist is a powerful thing, Percy."

"Mist?"

"Yes. Read The Iliad. It's full of references to the stuff. Whenever divine or monstrous elements mix with the mortal world, they generate Mist, which obscures the vision of humans. You will see things just as they are, being a half-blood, but humans will interpret things quite differently. Remarkable, really, the lengths to which humans will go to fit things into their version of reality."

I put Riptide back in my pocket.

For the first time, the quest felt real. I was actually leaving Half-Blood Hill. I was heading west with no adult supervision, no backup plan, not even a cell phone. (Chiron said cell phones were traceable by monsters; if we used one, it would be worse than sending up a flare.) I had no weapon stronger than a sword to fight off monsters and reach the Land of the Dead.

"Chiron ..." I said. "When you say the gods are immortal... I mean, there was a time before them, right?"

"Four ages before them, actually. The Time of the Titans was the Fourth Age, sometimes called the Golden Age, which is definitely a misnomer. This, the time of Western civilization and the rule of Zeus, is the Fifth Age."

"So what was it like ... before the gods?"

Chiron pursed his lips. "Even I am not old enough to remember that, child, but I know it was a time of darkness and savagery for mortals. Kronos, the lord of the Titans, called his reign the Golden Age because men lived innocent and free of all knowledge. But that was mere propaganda. The Titan king cared nothing for your kind except as appetizers or a source of cheap entertainment. It was only in the early reign of Lord Zeus, when Prometheus the good Titan brought fire to mankind, that your species began to progress, and even then Prometheus was branded a radical thinker. Zeus punished him severely, as you may recall. Of course, eventually the gods warmed to humans, and Western civilization was born."

"So he got punished for helping humans? Oh that's real fair." Hinata said sarcastically

"But the gods can't die now, right? I mean, as long as Western civilization is alive, they're alive. So ... even if we failed, nothing could happen so bad it would mess up everything, right?"

Chiron gave us a melancholy smile. "No one knows how long the Age of the West will last, Percy. The gods are immortal, yes. But then, so were the Titans. They still exist, locked away in their various prisons, forced to endure end-less pain and punishment, reduced in power, but still very much alive. May the Fates forbid that the gods should ever suffer such a doom, or that we should ever return to the darkness and chaos of the past. All we can do, child, is follow our destiny."

"Our destiny ... assuming we know what that is."

"Relax," Chiron told me. "Keep a clear head. And remember, you two may be about to prevent the biggest war in human history."

"Relax," I said. "I'm very relaxed."

"Then why do you look like you're about to pass out?" My best friend asked

I didn't answer her, she sighed and took my hand in hers and squeezed gently.

"Come on" She smiled as she eyes shined "Our journey awaits."

In that instant, I knew as long as she was there, everything would work out.

"Yeah"

When we got to the bottom of the hill, I looked back. Under the pine tree that used to be Thalia, daughter of Zeus, Chiron was now standing in full horseman form, holding his bow high in salute. Just your typical summer-camp send off by your typical centaur.

Argus drove us out of the countryside and into western Long Island. It felt weird to be on a highway again, Hinata and Grover sitting next to me as if we were normal carpoolers. After two weeks at Half-Blood Hill, the real world seemed like a fantasy. I found myself staring at every McDonald's, every kid in the back of his parents' car, every billboard and shopping mall.

"So far so good," I told Hinata. "Ten miles and not a single monster."

Without looking up with from the book Annabeth gave her, she smacked me upside my head.

"Oww! What was that for?!"

"Are you trying to jinx us? When people say that, something bad always happens."

She glanced at me "Remember our last few field trips?"

I thought back to our trips together and realized she was right, I would say something like that before disaster happens. It's a flaw I really need to fix.

We sat in silence for a few minutes. I was getting bored of looking out the window. I turned to look at Hinata and as I stared at her, I could feel my cheeks getting warm. Even without the jewelry and the dress, she still looked beautiful.

"Perce?"

It looked like she still had her makeup on.

"Perce..."

I couldn't help but think she looked more beautiful without that stuff on her face.

"Percy!"

I jumped as the loud voice brought me out of my thoughts. "H-Huh?"

"Finally you snapped out of it. I wanted to know if you needed something."

"Why would you think that?"

"Because you wouldn't stop staring at me."

Now my cheek felt hot. She caught me staring at her!

I tried finding an excuse "I-It's your face."

"My face?"

"Yeah..."

She thought for a second but realizing what I meant and scowled down at the book "It's just a stupid blessing."

"A blessing?"

"When I saw what had happen to me after I passed out, I immediately went to take everything off. The clothes, shoes and jewelry were no problem but my hair and makeup were impossible!"

"Impossible, how?"

"No matter how many times I cut my hair, it would go back to this length!" She complained, showing me her shoulder length hair "But the make up is the worse! I've tried rubbing it out, washing it out, heck I've tried slapping it off, but nothing worked!"

"So what are you going to do?"

"Apparently, I can't do anything about it. Before I went to pack, I ran into one of Aphrodite's kids..."

Her half siblings I thought

"One of the nice ones, thankful. She told me when Aphrodite claims one of her children, she gives them her blessing, meaning she gives them a makeover. The camper said that there was nothing I could do, I would just have to wait for it to wear out."

"How long does that take?" I asked

"It varies. For some only a day or three. But the lucky ones the longest was 10 days."

The night of the game was about 5 days ago, so that means...

"You've got 5 more days to go."

She sighed, rubbing her face "I hope it ends sooner than that. I don't feel like me when I have this on."

"Yeah, you look better without it on." I thought aloud

"What?"

"N-Nothing!"

"But..."

"Really! I said nothing!"

In the front seat, Argus smiled. He didn't say anything, but one blue eye on the back of his neck winked at me.

Traffic slowed us down in Queens. By the time we got into Manhattan it was sunset and starting to rain.

Argus dropped us at the Greyhound Station on the Upper East Side, not far from my mom and Gabe's apartment. Taped to a mailbox was a soggy flyer with my and Hinata's picture on it: HAVE YOU SEEN THIS BOY AND THIS GIRL?

I ripped it down before Hinata and Grover could notice.

Argus unloaded our bags, made sure we got our bus tickets, then drove away, the eye on the back of his hand opening to watch us as he pulled out of the parking lot.

I thought about how close I was to my old apartment. On a normal day, my mom would be home from the candy store by now. Smelly Gabe was probably up there right now, playing poker, not even missing her.

Grover shouldered his backpack. He gazed down the street in the direction I was looking. "You want to know why she married him, Percy?"

I stared at him. "Were you reading my mind or something?"

"Just your emotions." He shrugged. "Guess I forgot to tell you satyrs can do that. You were thinking about your mom and your stepdad, right?"

I nodded, wondering what else Grover might've forgotten to tell me.

"Your mom married Gabe for you," Grover told me. "You call him 'Smelly,' but you've got no idea. The guy has this aura... Yuck. I can smell him from here. I can smell traces of him on you, and you haven't been near him for a week."

"Thanks," I said. "Where's the nearest shower?"

"You should be grateful, Percy. Your stepfather smells so repulsively human he could mask the presence of any demigod. As soon as I took a whiff inside his Camaro, I knew: Gabe has been covering your scent for years. In fact it's been covering Hinata too! Because you and her hang out so much, the smell covers her too. If you hadn't lived with him every summer, you and Hinata probably would've been found by monsters a long time ago. Your mom stayed with him to protect you. She was a smart lady. She must've loved you a lot to put up with that guy if that makes you feel any better."

It didn't, but I forced myself not to show it. I'll see her again, I thought. She isn't gone.

I wondered if Grover could still read my emotions, mixed up as they were. I was glad he and Hinata were with me, but I felt guilty that I hadn't been straight with them (well at least Grover, Hinata probably figured it out). I hadn't told them the real reason I'd said yes to this crazy quest.

The truth was, I didn't care about retrieving Zeus's lightning bolt, or saving the world, or even helping my father out of trouble. The more I thought about it, I resented Poseidon for never visiting me, never helping my mom, never even sending a lousy child-support check. He'd only claimed me because he needed a job done.

All I cared about was my mom. Hades had taken her unfairly, and Hades was going to give her back.

You will be betrayed by one who calls you a friend, the Oracle whispered in my mind. You will fail to save what matters most in the end.

Shut up, I told it.

The rain kept coming down.

We got restless waiting for the bus and decided to play some Hacky Sack with one of Grover's apples. Hinata was unbelievable. She could bounce the apple off her knee, her elbow, her shoulder, whatever. I wasn't too bad myself.

The game ended when I tossed the apple toward Grover and it got too close to his mouth. In one mega goat bite, our Hacky Sack disappeared core, stem, and all.

Grover blushed. He tried to apologize, but Hinata and I were too busy cracking up.

Finally the bus came. As we stood in line to board, Grover started looking around, sniffing the air like he smelled his favorite school cafeteria delicacy enchiladas.

"What is it?" I asked.

"I don't know," he said tensely. "Maybe it's nothing."

But I could tell it wasn't nothing. I started looking over my shoulder, too.

I was relieved when we finally got on board and found seats together in the back of the bus. We stowed our backpacks. Hinata kept twisting the ring on her finger.

As the last passengers got on, Hinata clamped her hand onto my knee. "Perce, we've got trouble."

An old lady had just boarded the bus. She wore a crumpled velvet dress, lace gloves, and a shapeless orange-knit hat that shadowed her face, and she carried a big paisley purse. When she tilted her head up, her black eyes glittered, and my heart skipped a beat.

It was Mrs. Dodds. Older, more withered, but definitely the same evil face. I scrunched down in my seat, pulling Hinata with me.

"Oh damn!" She whispered, her face turning pale "She brought her sisters!"

Behind her came two more old ladies: one in a green hat, one in a purple hat. Otherwise they looked exactly like Mrs. Dodds-same gnarled hands, paisley handbags, wrinkled velvet dresses. Triplet demon grandmothers.

They sat in the front row, right behind the driver. The two on the aisle crossed their legs over the walkway, making an X. It was casual enough, but it sent a clear message: nobody leaves.

The bus pulled out of the station, and we headed through the slick streets of Manhattan. "She didn't stay dead long," I said, trying to keep my voice from quivering. "I thought Annabeth said they could be dispelled for a lifetime."

"She said if we're lucky," Hinata said. "And as usual, we're obviously not."

"All three of them," Grover whimpered. "Di immortales!"

"Just stay calm guys," Hinata said, obviously thinking hard. "Those three old hag are The Furies. Known to be the worst monsters in the Underworld. Not a problem. Not a problem. We'll just slip out the windows."

"They don't open," Grover moaned.

"A back exit?" she suggested.

There wasn't one. Even if there had been, it wouldn't have helped. By that time, we were on Ninth Avenue, heading for the Lincoln Tunnel.

"They won't attack us with witnesses around," I said. "Will they?"

"Remember what Chiron told," Hinata reminded me. "They won't see what's really happening do to the Mist."

"But they'll see three old ladies killing us, won't they?"

She thought about it. "Hard to say. But we can't count on their help. Maybe an emergency exit in the roof ... ?"

We hit the Lincoln Tunnel, and the bus went dark except for the running lights down the aisle. It was eerily quiet without the sound of the rain.

Mrs. Dodds got up. In a flat voice, as if she'd rehearsed it, she announced to the whole bus: "I need to use the restroom."

"So do I," said the second sister.

"So do I," said the third sister.

They all started coming down the aisle.

"We don't have a choice," Hinata said. "Percy, take my ring."

"What?"

"Turn invisible and go up the aisle. Let them pass you. Maybe you can get to the front and get away."

"Are you crazy?! They're after you too!"

"Does it look like I care?! Listen I can hold my own, just worry about yourself."

"But you guys-"

"Grover, while I distract them, you get away and follow Percy."

"No way, I'm your protector! I'm suppose to be protecting you."

"I'm not arguing with you two about this!"

"I can't just leave you."

"You can and you will!" Hinata strongly said. "Now, Go!"

My hands trembled. I felt like a coward, but I took the ring and put it on.

When I looked down, my body wasn't there anymore.

I started creeping up the aisle. I managed to get up ten rows, then duck into an empty seat just as the Furies walked past.

Mrs. Dodds stopped, sniffing, and looked straight at me. My heart was pounding. Apparently she didn't see anything. She and her sisters kept going.

I was free. I made it to the front of the bus. We were almost through the Lincoln Tunnel now. I was about to press the emergency stop button when I heard hideous wailing from the back row.

The old ladies were not old ladies anymore. Their faces were still the same, I guess those couldn't get any uglier- but their bodies had shriveled into leathery brown hag bodies with bat's wings and hands and feet like gargoyle claws. Their handbags had turned into fiery whips.

The Furies surrounded Grover and Hinata, lashing their whips, hissing: "Where is it? Where?"

The other people on the bus were screaming, cowering in their seats. They saw something, all right.

"You won't find him!" Hinata yelled. "He's gone!"

"Tell us and it will be quick and painless, darling." Mrs. Dodds hissed

"Forget it! Now back off!" She demanded

The strange thing was they actually listened, a bit hesitant but still backed away.

Hinata took that chance and pushed Grover away from the sisters and into the aisle.

"Go, Grover!"

"No! I can't just-"

"Shut up and run now!"

His bottom lip was quivering and he looked ready to cry but did what she said.

He ran down the aisle, I grabbed him when got close enough.

"AA-"

"Grover, it's me!"

"Percy, she...they're gonna..."

"The satyr is getting away!" One of the sister hissed

"Forget him! It's the girl and boy we want!" Mrs Dodds hissed angrily "Now where is it?"

"I already told you, he's not here!"

"Tell us!"

"Never!"

The Furies raised their whips.

Hinata drew her bronze knife. "Bring it on!"

What I did next was so impulsive and dangerous I should've been named ADHD poster child of the year.

The bus driver was distracted, trying to see what was going on in his rearview mirror.

"Grover, hang onto something!"

"Wait! What are you-"

Still invisible, I grabbed the wheel from him and jerked it to the left. Everybody howled as they were thrown to the right, and I heard what I hoped was the sound of three Furies smashing against the windows.

"Hey!" the driver yelled. "Hey-whoa!"

We wrestled for the wheel. The bus slammed against the side of the tunnel, grinding metal, throwing sparks a mile behind us.

We careened out of the Lincoln Tunnel and back into the rainstorm, people and monsters tossed around the bus, cars plowed aside like bowling pins.

Somehow the driver found an exit. We shot off the highway, through half a dozen traffic lights, and ended up barreling down one of those New Jersey rural roads where you can't believe there's so much nothing right across the river from New York. There were woods to our left, the Hudson River to our right, and the driver seemed to be veering toward the river.

Another great idea: I hit the emergency brake.

The bus wailed, spun a full circle on the wet asphalt, and crashed into the trees. The emergency lights came on. The door flew open. The bus driver was the first one out, the passengers yelling as they stampeded after him. Grover and I stepped into the driver's seat and let them pass.

The Furies regained their balance. They lashed their whips at Hinata while she waved her knife and yelled in Japanese, telling them to back off.

I looked at the open doorway. I was free to go, but I couldn't...

"Percy, we can't just leave her!" Grover frantically whispered

No, I'm not leaving her. I took off the invisible ring. "Hey!"

The Furies turned, baring their yellow fangs at me, and the exit suddenly seemed like an excellent idea. Mrs. Dodds stalked up the aisle, just as she used to do in class, about to deliver my F- math test. Every time she flicked her whip, red flames danced along the barbed leather.

Her two ugly sisters hopped on top of the seats on either side of her and crawled toward me like huge nasty lizards.

"Perseus Jackson," Mrs. Dodds said, in an accent that was definitely from somewhere farther south than Georgia. "You and the girl have offended the gods. You shall die first."

"I liked you better as a math teacher," I told her.

She growled.

Grover moved beside me with a tin can as his only weapon.

Hinata moved up behind the Furies cautiously, looking for an opening.

I took the ballpoint pen out of my pocket and uncapped it. Riptide elongated into a shimmering double- edged sword.

The Furies hesitated.

Mrs. Dodds had felt Riptide's blade before. She obviously didn't like seeing it again.

"Submit now," she hissed. "And you will not suffer eternal torment."

"Nice try," I told her.

"Percy, look out!" Himata cried.

Mrs. Dodds lashed her whip around my sword hand while the Furies on the either side lunged at me.

My hand felt like it was wrapped in molten lead, but I managed not to drop Riptide. I stuck the Fury on the left with its hilt, sending her toppling backward into a seat. I turned and sliced the Fury on the right. As soon as the blade connected with her neck, she screamed and exploded into dust. Hinata round kicked Mrs. Dodds, making her lose her balance and fall backwards while Grover ripped the whip out of her hands.

"Ow!" he yelled. "Ow! Hot! Hot!"

The Fury I'd hilt slammed came at me again, talons ready, but I swung Riptide and she broke open like a piñata.

Mrs. Dodds was trying to get off the floor. She kicked, clawed, hissed and bit, but Hinata held her down while Grover got Mrs. Dodds's legs tied up in her own whip. Finally they both shoved her backward into the aisle. Mrs. Dodds tried to get up, but she didn't have room to flap her bat wings, so she kept falling down.

"Zeus will destroy you!" she promised. "Hades will have your soul!"

"Braccas meas vescimini!" I yelled.

I wasn't sure where the Latin came from. I think it meant "Eat my pants!"

Thunder shook the bus. The hair rose on the back of my neck.

"We need to leave!" Hinata yelled at me, while grabbing her bag. "Now!" I didn't need any encouragement.

We rushed outside and found the other passengers wan-dering around in a daze, arguing with the driver, or running around in circles yelling, "We're going to die!" A Hawaiian-shirted tourist with a camera snapped my photograph before I could recap my sword.

"Percy's bags and mine!" Grover realized. "We left our-"

BOOOOOM!

The windows of the bus exploded as the passengers ran for cover. Lightning shredded a huge crater in the roof, but an angry wail from inside told me Mrs. Dodds was not yet dead.

"Forget your bags! We need to go!" Hinata said. "She's calling more of her comrades! We have to get out of here!"

We plunged into the woods as the rain poured down, the bus in flames behind us, and nothing but darkness ahead.


End file.
